Lady Tams earn last semis berth

MANILA, Philippines - Far Eastern U outduelled Ateneo in four closely-fought sets and pounded out a 24-26, 26-24, 25-20, 25-19 victory to clinch the fourth and last Final Four berth in the Shakey’s V-League Season 7 second conference at The Arena in San Juan yesterday.

The Lady Tams drew double-digit outputs from four players to underscore their determined bid with guest players Rachel Anne Daquis and Michelle Carolino leading the attack with 22 and 21 hits, respectively.

Cherry May Vivas unloaded 16 points while Monique Tiangco added 13 as the Lady Tams outhit the Lady Eagles, 65-46, in their sudden death duel for the last semis seat in the season-ending conference of the league sponsored by Shakey’s Pizza.

FEU, which stopped Ateneo, also in four sets, in the last quarterfinal round playdate to force a playoff, thus took the No. 4 spot in the semis and will face top seed San Sebastian-Excelroof in a best-of-three series.

Adamson, which finished tied for first with SSC at 10-2 but lost in the tiebreak for the No. 1 spot, will take on Lyceum in the other Final Four duel starting Thursday.

Outhit, the Lady Eagles still kept the game close after dropping the second set but Thai import Surasawadee Boonyuen and Fille Cainglet failed to draw the much-needed backup from the rest of the team.

Boonyuen scattered 19 kills and finished with 21 points while Cainglet came through with 10 hits, including nine attacks. But Gretchen Ho was held to just eight hits while Bea Pascual and Denise Acevedo combined for just 13 hits for the Loyola-based squad.

The Lady Tams also controlled the net, coming up with 12 blocks, including six from Carolino while the Eagles drew three blocks from Pascual and finished with seven.

Wenneth Eulalio and Gyzelle Sy also combined for eight hits for the Lady Tams, who thus stayed in the hunt for a crack at a first-ever crown in the league organized by Sports Vision and backed by Accel, Mikasa and Excelroof.