Lyceum, St Benilde cagebelles forge title duel

Defending champion Lyceum of the Philippines and College of St. Benilde overwhelmed their respective semifinal foes Saturday to forge a rematch of last year’s title duel in the 38th WNCAA senior basketball tournament at the St. Scholastica’s College gym.

The Lady Pirates crushed the World Citi Colleges Vikings, 83-50, and the Lady Blazers followed suit by overwhelming the St. Scholastica Scions, 90-64.

Game One of the best-of-three series for the Senior A title is set tentatively on Oct. 7.

April Dianne Lualhati topscored with 24 points as she reprised her role of chief thorn on the side of the Vikings. Lualhati powered the Lady Pirates to a 69-36 victory over the Vikings in their first encounter last Sept. 9.

Leonette Salvacion, on the other hand, made herself a target for the Lady Pirates’ defense in the finals as she topscored with 30 points for the Lady Blazers.

In the final playing day of the Senior B elimination round, Rizal Technological University completed a six-game sweep with a 58-41 victory over La Consolacion College Manila. Cariza Joanna Valdez led the winners with 19 points.

Emilio Aguinaldo College finished third after nipping University of Asia and the Pacific, 58-55.

RTU will have the twice-to-beat edge in the semifinals next Sunday against fourth-ranked Philippine Women’s University. St. Francis of Assisi College will have the same bonus over EAC after ending the eliminations in second at 5-1.

Source: www.inquirer.net

Lyceum scores a win against FEU

MANILA, Philippines—Lyceum of the Philippines finally ended its three-game skid with a thrilling five-set victory over reigning UAAP champion Far Eastern University Sunday that revived its hopes in the Shakey’s V-League Season 5 of the women’s volleyball tournament at The Arena in San Juan City.
Veteran Beverly Boto scored 23 points, including 20 kills, while Dahlia Cruz added 16 for the Lady Pirates, who took the last two sets to complete a tough 25-23, 20-25, 24-26, 25-16, 15-8 win over the Lady Tams before a big Sunday crowd.
Adamson University served notice of its title bid as it walloped Ateneo de Manila University, 25-15, 25-20, 25-18, in the second game to catch idle San Sebastian College at the helm with its second win in as many outings.
Neriza Bautista outhit, outplayed and outscored Thai import Jindarat Kanchana, finishing with 14 kills in a 15-point output while Angela Benting and Rissa Laguilles fired 14 and 12 points, respectively for the Lady Falcons, the losing UAAP finalists.
The power-spiking Kanchana, who normed 17 hits in Ateneo’s first two romps, was held to 10 points while the prolific Ma. Rosario Soriano struggled for only nine points as the Eagles dropped to third with a 2-1 slate.
Lyceum’s first win in four starts revived the Lady Pirates’ hopes for a quarterfinal berth in the double-round elimination phase of the event sponsored by Shakey’s Pizza and organized by Sports Vision.
FEU, which outlasted College of St. Benilde also in five sets last week, dropped to 1-1.
Boto also had three blocks while Sylvie Gay Artates came up with two to anchor Lyceum’s defense up front while the rest of the crew helped neutralize the spiker Irish Morada.
Cruz also blasted home 13 points for the Lady Pirates, who started out strong but failed to thwart the Lady Tams in the second and third sets.
“I told my players in the fifth set that they should play as a team and help each other,” said Lyceum assistant coach Benjamin Mape, who took over from head coach Emil Lontoc.
The Pirates pounced on three errors by the Lady Tams, including two by Morada, before Boto delivered a kill that gave Lyceum a 13-7 lead in the deciding frame.
“We focused on Morada and it’s a good thing that my players responded,” said Mape

Thanks to Inquirer for this article.