SUZANNE Roces shone for San Sebastian College to make a return trip to the championship round. Roces fired a career-high 32 hits as the Lady Stags went thru the wringer before edging Ateneo, 21-25, 25-22, 23-25, 25-21, 15-12, and claim their sixth finals stint in the Shakey’s V-League first conference semifinals Tuesday at the Filoil Flying V Arena in San Juan.
San Sebastian swept the best-of-three series, 2-0. Defending champion University of Santo Tomas forged a deciding Game 3 by subduing Lyceum, 25-18, 25-23, 25-22, in the other semis pairing.
Aiza Maizo registered 18 hits while Angeli Tabaquero 16 points as the Tigresses tied the semis series to one game apiece and kept their hopes alive for a third straight championship in the event organized by Sports Vision and supported by Accel, Mikasa and Mighty Bond.
The semifinals decider will be played at 4 p.m on Thursday. “Bumawi kami sa blocking, yun ang nawala sa amin sa last game. Well-executed ang mga plays ng mga bata,” said assistant mentor Vilet Ponce de Leon, who temporarily handled the UST bench with head coach Shaq delos Santos not around due to a prior commitment.
With only five blocks to show in the series opener, the Tigresses were much better this time in their net defense by scoring seven blocks, with four coming from Maizo. UST sealed the straight set win with Maizo unloaded a dizzying
running spike from out of nowhere to the middle and guest player Mary Jean Balse scoring the game-winning service ace.
Joy Cases had 13 points while Thai import Tip Santrong added 12 hits, a far cry from her career-high 35 points in Game 1 for the Lady Pirates.
The Lady Eagles last took the lead at 10-9 with a Gretchen Ho block before Roces took over with her running spikes and quicks for the Lady Stags to take a 14-11 advantage.
Ateneo threatened to 12-14 after Kara Acevedo scored with a left-handed kill before San Sebastian sealed the win with Joy Benito unloading a match-winning smash.
Despite the victory, Lady Stags mentor Roger Gorayeb was not satisfied with the way his troops played in Game 2.
“Hindi maganda ang bigay ng bola ng setter ko (Jennelyn Belen). Mabuti at dinala kami ni Su (Roces) sa fifth set. We just survived,” said Gorayeb. Roces had a impressive all-around game, as the 5-foot-10 spiker collected 10 digs, seven service aces and four blocks for San Sebastian.
Jeng Bualee and Benito chipped in 24 and 14 points, respectively, for the Lady Stags. Sontaya Keawbundit had a personal-best 30 points while Acevedo and Dzi Gervacio added 16 and 15 hits, respectively, for the Lady Eagles.
Unlike in the series opener which they lost in straight sets, Ateneo finally moved on without its injured reinforcement Charo Soriano. Sontaya, Acevedo, Gervacio and Ho waxed hot as the Lady Eagles seized two of the game’s first three sets.
In the fourth frame, Ateneo had a 15-13 lead after Elaine Cruz committed an attacking error before Roces stepped up for San Sebastian with her timely hits for a 22-16 buffer and never looked back. For the second straight game, Lady Eagles reserve Fille Cainglet was a non-factort, scoring a tournament-low two hits. Ateneo is 0-3 in five-set matches in the tournament sponsored by Shakey’s Pizza and backed by PLDT myDSL. (TJ)
