Lady Falcons seek solo lead

MANILA, Philippines - Surging Adamson goes for the solo lead as it faces Far Eastern U while San Sebastian-Excelroof tries to bounce back against National U in the quarterfinal round of the Shakey’s V-League Season 7 second conference at The Arena in San Juan today.

The Lady Falcons showed their readiness to claim the league’s season-ending conference crown as they repeated over the fancied Stags in another five-set thriller, 15-25, 25-21, 13-25, 25-19, 25-13, to force a two-way tie for the lead with their victim at 6-2.

Former MVP Nerissa Bautista, Angela Benting, Pau Soriano and Michelle Laborte, who combined for 60 hits against the Stags, are expected to lead the Lady Falcons’ charge again against an FEU side backstopped by the talented Rachel Anne Daquis, Michelle Carolino, Cherry May Vivas and Monique Tiangco. Gametime is at 4 p.m.

Although Adamson is slightly favored over FEU, the Lady Tams are going all out to boost their own semifinal bid in the league sponsored by Shakey’s Pizza and organized by Sports Vision. FEU is 2 1/2 games behind Adamson and SSC at 4-3 for joint fourth with Lyceum.

The Lady Stags, meanwhile, try to recover lost ground as they clash with the NU Lady Bulldogs in the 2 p.m. opener of another tripleheader that also features the Ateneo-Lyceum match at 6 p.m.

Thai import Jeng Bualee and Joy Benito are again expected to lead SSC’s bid against NU, which came back from two sets down to nip fellow newcomer Perpetual Help last Sunday for the last quarterfinal berth.

 in the season-ending conference backed by Accel, Mikasa and Excelroof.

Although the Bulldogs are way behind at 2-5, they stood just two games behind the fourth-running FEU and Lyceum and could contend for the last Final Four berth with a solid campaign in the quarters.

“Our goal is to get as much exposure as we can because we at NU want to promote women’s volleyball,” said NU coach Francis Vicente. “I hope our win over Perpetual Help in the sudden death served the purpose.”

Mervic Mangui, whose sterling 28-hit performance against Perpetual Help last Sunday propelled her to No. 4 in the scoring ranking, hopes to sustain her form and draw the best from guest players Denise Santiago and Daphne Santiago and mainstays Maricar Nepomuceno and Elaine Sagun against the powerhouse SSC side.

Ateneo, on the other hand, tries to close in on the joint leaders as it seeks its sixth win against two losses against Lyceum.

Coming off a week-long rest, the Lady Eagles hope to come out strong behind Thai ace Surasawadee Boonyuen, Fille Cainglet, Bea Pascual, Gretchen Ho, Alyssa Valdez and Angeline Gervacio as they take on a Lyceum side led by former MVP Mary Jean Balse, Joy Cases, Dahlia Cruz and Jamie Peña.

Meanwhile, the SSC-NU duel will be aired tomorrow (Friday) on NBN-4 starting at 2 p.m. while the Adamson-FEU match and the Ateneo-Lyceum clash will be shown Saturday and Sunday, respectively.