San Sebastian forced a sudden death showdown with the University of Santo Tomas in a cracking down-the-wire finish to even their best-of-three championship series before a rocking crowd at The Arena in San Juan Tuesday.
The Lady Stags prevailed in a grueling five setter 21-25, 25-16, 15-25, 25-20, 15-13 to arrange a titular face-off in the rapidly growing Shakey’s V-League Season 7 first conference where both the crowd and the cheering fans signaled the establishment of the league as a sports and entertainment spectacle.
Suzanne Roces and Joy Benito delivered the last two points while a determined Thai import Jeng Bualee who is aching to win her first title in Manila attled off four straight hits down the stretch to anchor the victory for the Lady Stags.
The Tigresses, who tied the match for the last time at 11 on a Michelle Carolino hit, moved to within 13-14 on a Mary Jean Balse attack. But Benito scored on the third touch, a
front hit that the Tigresses failed to return, ending the one-hour, 55-minute battle that swung in favor of one team, then the other.
San Sebastian got the crucial breaks when they needed them the most which was a credit to Bualee, Roces and Benito who fought through their fatigue to stay alive.
Colorful coach Roger Gorbayeb said “We just needed to win. I
didn’t need to say that to them, because if we lost we’ll go home. Fortunately they showed the heart and desire to win.”
Benito, the conference’s most improved player, finished with 20 hits, providing solid backup to Bualee’s 27-point output.
Outhit, 55-59, the Lady Stags worked on their net defense and came away with 15 blocks as against the Tigresses 12 with Dafina Robiños serving as a surprise package although she did appear rattled at times. She accounted for eight key points before finishing with a
nine-point production.
The Recoletos-based squad also had more aces, 6-3, although it took them a tough fourth set win to stay in the hunt for a second championship in the league sponsored by Shakey’s Pizza
and presented by PLDT MyDSL.
The Tigresses clawed back from seven points down in the fourth set to force a deciding fifth set but with Bualee combining this time with Elaine Cruz, San Sebastian pulled through.
Last year’s MVP Aiza Maizo negated Bualee’s production by churning out 28 hits while Balse added 14 points for the Tigresses, who missed the services of spikers Angeli Tabaquero (knee injury) and Maru Banaticla (ankle injury).
Earlier, Ateneo survived Lyceum’s tough stand in the first two sets then dominated the third to score a 25-23, 25-23, 25-17 victory and clinch third place honors in the event organized by Sports Vision and backed by Mikasa, Accel and Mighty Bond.
The Shakey’s V League matches are telecast on the government network NBN 4 and replayed on the Viva Sports cable channel over Destiny Cable, nationwide.
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