San Sebastian-Excelroof recovered from a shaky third set performance with an imposing game in the fourth as it trounced National University, 25-15, 25-12, 24-26, 25-13, to regain the lead in the quarterfinal round of the Shakey’s V-League Season 7 second conference at The Arena in San Juan Thursday.

Relaxing a bit after dominating the Lady Bulldogs in the first two sets, the Lady Stags found themselves stalled in the third and needed to put their act together to blast their rivals and complete the win in 1:23.

It was SSC’s seventh victory against two defeats, both dealt by Adamson, as the Lady Stags resumed their drive for a berth in the Final Four of the season-ending conference of the league sponsored by Shakey’s Pizza.

NU dropped to 2-6.Thai import Jeng Bualee knocked down 30 hits in an overpowering show of offense that included 28 attacks as she made mincemeat of NU’s net defense all throughout the contest.

Three other Stags churned out double-digit scores to underscore the team’s domination of the Lady Bulldogs with guest player Suzanne Roces unleasing 16 hits and Elaine Cruz and Joy Benito adding 11 and 10 points, respectively.

SSC came away with a total of 65 hits, almost doubling the 37-hit production of NU, which drew 19 points from Mervic Mangui and 15 points from guest player Denise Santiago.

The Lady Bulldogs actually finished with nine blocks as against their rivals five but the big number of attacks dished out by the Stags proved too much for the newcomer team to overcome.

Maricar Nepomuceno added eight hits for NU, now needing to win at least three of the last four games to stay in the hunt for the last semis seat in the tournament organized by Sports Vision and backed by Accel, Mikasa and Excelroof.

Adamson matched SSC’s four-set win as it scrambled past Far Eastern U, 25-23, 25-17, 22-25, 25-17, to remain tied for the lead with the Lady Stags.

Angela Benting fired 20 hits and former MVP Nerissa Bautista added 17 points as the Lady Falcons continued to flash fine form in their chase for their second championship in the league.

Michell Laborte made six blocks as she took care of Adamson’s net defense with Pau Soriano, who also had three, with the duo combining for 26 points for the Lady Falcons, who stopped the Stags’ run in the elims and then repeated at the start of the quarters in a pair of five-set thrillers.

Rachel Anne Daquis scored 21 hits and Michelle Carolino backed her up with 18 points but the Lady Tams failed to come up with a big follow-up to their third set win and fell to 4-4.

Games Sunday
2 p.m. – NU vs Ateneo
4 p.m. – FEU vs SSC
6 p.m. – Lyceum vs Adamson

Photos courtesy of Ben Maniclang

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