Lady Tams seek Last 8 vs Blazers

MANILA, Philippines - Streaking Far Eastern U goes for the second quarterfinal berth as it plays a resurgent St. Benilde side at resumption of action in the Shakey’s V-League Season 6 at The Arena in San Juan today.

The Lady Tams outlasted the reigning five-time NCAA champion San Sebastian Lady Stags in a thrilling five-setter last Sunday to stretch their win run to three for an overall 4-1 card. Another win in their 2 p.m. encounter will give them the second spot in the next round alongside the UST Tigresses, who are unbeaten in five games.

The Lady Blazers, who lost this year’s NCAA crown to the Lady Stags in sudden death, notched their first win after back-to-back setbacks, beating the Lyceum Lady Pirates in straight sets, also last Sunday.

But they would need to double their effort to stop the Lady Tams, who are out to improve on their fourth-place finish in the first conference of the league sponsored by Shakey’s Pizza.

Cherry Vivas, who rammed in a career-high 23 hits against San Sebastian, is again expected to lead FEU’s bid together with Shaira Gonzalez, Monique Tiangco, Rose Cabanag and Rachel Daquis.

St. Benilde hopes to neutralize FEU’s firepower with a solid defense anchored on Katty Kwan, Giza Yumang, Zharmaine Velez, Ren Agero and guest player Rossan Fajardo.

Ateneo-OraCare, meanwhile, tries to recover lost grounds as it clashes with winless Lyceum in the 4 p.m. main game of a twinbill organized by Sports Vision.

Games can be viewed on webcast on www.v-league.ph. NBN-4 will telecast the matches on a delayed basis with the FEU-St. Benilde game set at 2 p.m. tomorrow and the Ateneo-Lyceum encounter to be aired on Thursday.

After a romp over Univ. of the Phils., Ateneo lost its next two games to FEU and UST to drop to joint fifth with St. Benilde.

But the Lady Eagles are fancied to get back on track at the expense of the Lady Pirates, who are in seventh place with a 0-3 slate.

Fille Cainglet and alumna Charo Soriano, who have been playing steady games for Ateneo, are tipped to carry the cudgels again for the Loyola-based squad along with Denise Acevedo, Gretchen Ho and Bea Pascual.