La Salle rips Letran, tows SSC, Lyceum to semis

La Salle overcame a listless first-set performance and bundled out Letran with a 10-25, 25-14, 25-16, 25-18 victory yesterday, giving San Sebastian and Lyceum a free ride to the semifinal round of the Shakey’s V-League at the Lyceum Gym.

Nicole Ann Remulla and Maria Carla Llaguno came off the bench to fire-up the Lady Archers, who came out flat in the early going but went on to dominate the Lady Knights in the last three sets to cap its seven-game romp after an opening-day loss to Santo Tomas.

But the Tigresses, who tied the Lady Archers at the top with 7-1 slates at the close of the elims, claimed the No. 1 spot in the crossover semis with a superior tiebreak score.

They will face Lyceum, which settled for the No. 4 ranking following San Sebastian’s hard-earned 21-25, 25-17, 25-15, 26-24 victory over Far Eastern U late Thursday at the close of the elimination round of the event sponsored by Shakey‘s.

The best-of-three semis starts Sunday with UST and Lyceum battling at 4 p.m. and La Salle facing San Sebastian, a perennial NCAA champion, at 6 p.m. Winners will dispute the inaugural crown of the event backed by Mikasa and Accel in another best-of-three affair.

"Medyo relax sa first set kaya masama ang simula namin," said La Salle coach Ramil de Jesus referring to their erratic opening set that lasted only less than 19 minutes.

"Because of it, I was forced to make key adjustments by fielding in Nicole (Remulla) and Carla (Llaguno) in the second set and the two responded well to the challenge," he added. — Joey Villar