Games tomorrow (Sunday, July 25)
2 p.m. – SSC-Excelroof vs Perpetual Help
4 p.m. – St. Benilde vs Lyceum
6 p.m. – FEU vs Adamson
San Sebastian-Excelroof showed too much power and poise as it essayed a comfortable straight sets 25-22, 25-17, 26-24 victory over Ateneo to wrest the solo lead in the Shakey’s V-League Season 7 second conference at The Arena in San Juan City late Thursday.
San Sebastian were actually not at the top of their game but Ateneo despite a courageous stand in the third set when they got some breaks, couldn’t fly high as even their Thai import appeared to be off her game.
SSC’s Jeng Bualee proved her worth when she outscored her Thai counterpart Surasawadee Boonyuen, knocking down 19 kills for a 20-point output. Bualee, a fixture on the Stags team appeared to enjoy getting the better of her 17 year old counterpart.
Bualee presided over a ferocious SSC attack from both sides that the Eagles simply couldn’t neutralize at the net and on the floor.
Suzanne Roces and Melissa Mirasol backed Bualee with 13 and 11 hits with Mirasol teaming up with Dafna Robiños to account for half of the Lady Stags’ 10 blocks in the match that took just 68 minutes to finish.
The Eagles actually put up a tough stand all throughout but just couldn’t deliver when it mattered most, enabling the Recoletos-based spikers to pound out the victory, their third straight in the season-ending conference of the league sponsored by Shakey’s Pizza.
The loss dropped Ateneo to 2-1, joining Adamson and a surging National U side in second as the race for the six quarterfinal berths expected to heat up starting tomorrow.
The Lady Stags, who also drew eight hits from Joy Benito and another eight points from the combined efforts of Elaine Cruz, Jennelyn Belen and Robiños, held Boonyuen to seven spikes with the Ateneo import finishing with just 10 points.
No other Lady Eagle churned out a double-digit score with guest player Alyssa Valdez had a fine run in the third set to keep Ateneo in the game and eventually settled for eight points in limited playing time because of a shoulder injur while Fille Cainglet and Angeline Gervacio finished with seven hits apiece. Bea Pascual and Denise Acevedo had five points each.
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