SSC spikers nail semis berth, turn back Eagles

San Sebastian pounced on the absence of Ateneo import Jindarat Kanchana and went on to pull off a 25-15, 25-21, 26-24 victory and gain the other outright semifinal berth in the Shakey’s V-League Season 5 at The Arena in San Juan yesterday.

The Lady Stags also drew big games from their reserves to reassert their domination of the Eagles and join early semifinalist and unbeaten Adamson (8-0) with a 7-1 (win-loss) card.

“I let my other players to shine to give them more playing minutes and I’m glad they responded to the challenge,” said SSC coach Roger Gorayeb.

The Eagles played without Kanchana, the league’s No. 2 scorer, who had to rushed back home following the untimely demise of her father.

Ateneo looked headed to extending the match after dropping the first two sets as Averil Paje came through with a kill to give the Eagles a 24-19 lead.

But Rysabelle Devanadera countered with two attacks and SSC moved to within one on back-to-back errors by Ma. Rosario Soriano.

SSC reserve China Repollo then made it 24-all before the Stags piled up two more points behind Margarita Pepito and seldom-used Jennelyn Belen to clinch the set, the match and the semis slot.

The loss was the Eagles’ fifth against three wins in the tournament sponsored by Shakey’s Pizza and organized by Sports Vision.

Laurence Ann Latigay topscored for SSC with 13 points while Devanadera and Analyn Benito chipped in nine and eight points, respectively.

Without its top scorer, Ateneo drew 17 points from Soriano but no other Eagle churned out double-digit score with Patricia Taganas and Denise Acevedo finishing with nine and five points, respectively.

Earlier, Far Eastern U buried St. Benilde with an avalanche of kills and posted a 25-11, 25-17, 25-19 victory to close out its elims stint in the league, backed by Active White skin whitening products, Mail and More, ICT Call Center, Mikasa and Accel, with a 3-7 (win-loss) mark.

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Irish Morada and Cherry Vivas came away with 10 hits apiece and the Lady Tams piled up 38 points on attacks against the Blazers’ 17 to underscore the reigning UAAP champs’ domination of the 1:08-hour encounter.