Maizo chases 2nd MVP plum vs Thai

MANILA, Philippines - Aiza Maizo hopes to sustain her fine form into the finals and steer UST to a record-tying three-peat against San Sebastian and at the same time boost her bid for back-to-back MVPs.

Maizo is currently in fourth place behind the three Thai imports in the MVP derby in the first conference of the Shakey’s V-League Season 7. But with Lyceum and Ateneo out of the title picture, Maizo, the top UST spiker, is expected to slug it out with SSC’s Jeng Bualee for the coveted individual title.

Lyceum’s Tip Santrong actually leads the race with 185 points followed by Bualee with 178 and Ateneo’s Sontaya Keawbundit with 162. Maizo is in fourth with 154 points while Joy Cases, also of Lyceum, is in fifth with 137 points.

The Tigresses will be trying to match La Salle’s three straight title romps from 2004-06 as they open their best-of-three series with the Lady Stags tomorrow at the Filoil Flying V Arena in San Juan.

UST beat SSC in this conference last year then went to topple Adamson for the second conference crown last December.

But the Lady Stags will be going all out to foil the Tigresses’ bid with Bualee also eyeing a second MVP in the league sponsored by Shakey’s Pizza and presented by PLDT MyDSL.

The SSC import emerged the top player in the 2007 first conference of the tournament organized by Sports Vision and backed by Accel, Mikasa and Mighty Bond but Bualee has failed to power the team to title romp in four championship appearances.

Bualee was not around when SSC won its first title in 2008 second conference.

Meanwhile, SSC’s Suzanne Roces emerged the top spiker with 46.48 percent success rate followed by Maizo with 43.26 percent but the UST ace was the league’s top blocker with 0.79 average per set, ahead of Nica Guliman of Lyceum with 0.74.

The other statistical leaders are Lyceum’s Nikki Tabafunda (service-0.65 average per set), Adamson libero Lizlee Ann Gata (digs-5.41 average per set) and reception (49.55 percent efficiency) and Des Patilano, also of Adamson, (setting-13.77 average per set).