MANILA, Philippines - San Sebastian and St. Benilde collide today in a duel of the recent NCAA title protagonists with the Lady Stags seeking to reassert their mastery over the Lady Blazers in the Shakey’s V-League Season 6 second conference at The Arena in San Juan City.
The Lady Stags went through a decider to finally dispose of the fighting Lady Blazers and claim their fifth straight NCAA women’s volley crown. But they are expected to encounter stiff resistance in their 4 p.m. encounter with the St. Benilde spikers, who are raring to get back at the Recoletos-based squad.
The two teams had contrasting results in their initial games in the league sponsored by Shakey’s Pizza with SSC struggling past a winless UP side in four sets and St. Benilde dropping a straight-set loss to Adamson last Tuesday.
SSC coach Roger Gorayeb hopes to draw steady performances from Joy Benito, Margarita Pepito and Elaine Cruz and Melissa Mirasol while alumna guest player Jinni Mondejar is expected to settle down after a shaky stint the first time out.
St. Benilde, on the other hand, will lean on the likes of skipper Giza Yumang, Katty Kwan, Zharmaine Velez, Kara Agero and guest player Rosann Fajardo.
Equally interesting is the 2 p.m. match between Far Eastern U and Ateneo-OraCare with the Lady Tams shooting for their third victory in four games and the Lady Eagles hoping to bounce back from a four-set loss to the UST Tigresses.
Games can be viewed live on www.v-league.ph, according to the organizing Sports Visions with NBN-4 airing the matches on a delayed basis starting at 2 p.m. the following day. The other backers of the league are Mikasa, Accel, Mighty Bond and OraCare.
A slambang action is expected in the Ateneo-FEU duel with Charo Soriano leading the Lady Eagles bid along with Fille Cainglet, Kara Acevedo, Gretchen Ho, Bea Pascual, Dzi Gervacio and Misha Quimpo against the equally-talented FEU crew of Rachel Daquis, Shaira Gonzalez, Monique Tiangco, Mary Rose Cabanag and Cherry Vivas.