Eagles book last ticket to Final 4

MANILA, Philippines - Ateneo used a strong start and a stronger finish in the fifth set to ground Air Force, 25-23, 11-25, 25-17, 19-25, 15-9, and clinch the last Final Four berth in the Shakey’s V-League Open Conference at The Arena in San Juan yesterday.

The Lady Eagles took the first five points in the decider, but wavered to enable the Airwomen to draw level at 7 before regrouping to win eight of the last 10 points, including four straight to wrap up the 1:55-hour playoff for the fourth semis slot in the league sponsored by Shakey’s Pizza.

More importantly, it kept Ateneo’s bid for a sweep of the season’s titles alive.

But the first conference champion will have top seed Army as its Final Four opponent with San Sebastian and Navy clashing for the other finals seat in a pair of best-of-three duels starting Sunday.

Alyssa Valdez and Fille Cainglet dished out a combined 36-hit performance while Dzi Gervacio and Gretchen Ho stepped up to fire 14 and 11 points, respectively, in a game they could not afford to lose.

Grabbing the spotlight was Den Den Lazaro who bagged the best player of the game award in a rare feat by a libero as she came through with 13 digs that kept the ball in play for Ateneo.

The Lady Eagles were outhit, 59-61, and outblocked, 2-11, but came up with a superb all-around game through Jamenea Ferrer (5 hits) and Aerieal Patnongon (3 hits).

Air Force tapped the services of Joy Cases, who saw action for Maynilad, in place of Irish Patrona but the Lady Eagles overcame the challenge.