In one of the most fiercely contested games with tremendous defense on both sides of the court, Far Eastern University won a gripping four-setter against Ateneo 24-26, 26-24, 25-20, 25-19 to clinch the fourth and last Final Four berth in the Shakey’s V-League Season 7 second conference at The Arena in San Juan, Sunday.

The Lady Tams, backed by a good crowd of supporters,drew double-digit outputs from four players to underscore their determined bid with guest players Rachel Anne Daquis and Michelle Carolino leading the attack with 22 and 21 hits, respectively.

Cherry May Vivas who hammered home some incredible hits unloaded 16 points while Monique Tiangco added 13 as the Lady Tams outhit the Lady Eagles, 65-46, in their sudden death duel for the last  semis seat in the season-ending conference of the league sponsored by Shakey’s
Pizza.

FEU, which stopped Ateneo also in four sets in the last quarterfinal round game day to force a playoff, took the No. 4 spot in the semis and will face top seed San Sebastian-Excelroof in a best-of-three series.

Adamson, which finished tied for first with SSC at 10-2 but lost in the tiebreak for the No. 1 spot, will take on Lyceum in the other Final Four duel starting Thursday.

Ateneo took a tense first set but even though the Lady Eagles were outhit most of the way they managed to keep the game close after dropping the second set, but Thai import Surasawadee Boonyuen and Fille Cainglet failed to draw the much-needed backup from the rest of the team.

Boonyuen scattered 19 kills and finished with 21 points while Cainglet came through with 10 hits, including nine attacks. But Gretchen Ho was held to just eight hits while Bea Pascual and Denise Acevedo combined for just 13 hits for the Loyola-based squad.

FEU was also in control at the net coming up with 12 blocks.

The Lady Tams also control the net, coming up with 12 blocks, including six from Carolino, while the Eagles drew three blocks from Pascual and finished with a total of seven.

Wenneth Eulalio and Gyzelle Sy also combined for eight hits for the Lady Tams who thus stayed in the hunt for a crack at a first-ever crown in the league organized by Sports Vision and backed by Accel, Mikasa and Excelroof.

Meanwhile, the FEU-Ateneo game will be shown at 2 p.m. Monday over the government television network NBN 4 and replayed over Viva Prime on the Destiny cable network.

Popularity: 4% [?]