MANILA, Philippines - Ateneo finally put its act together and got back at PLDT Home Telpad, essaying a shock 25-18, 25-21, 28-26 victory yesterday to keep its flickering semifinal hopes alive in the Shakey’s V-League Season 11 Open Conference at The Arena in San Juan.
The Lady Eagles showed up with a big fighting heart and surprised the Turbo Boosters with strong finishing kicks in the first two sets before outlasting the erstwhile co-leaders in a thrilling back-and-forth third set duel to fashion out the 78-minute victory that snapped a pair of heartbreaking five-set losses at the close of the elims last week.
The reigning UAAP champions remain at the cellar of the six-team field but the victory kept them in the race for at least the last semis berth in the mid-season conference of the league sponsored by Shakey’s and backed by Mikasa and Accel.
Ateneo actually tied National U at fifth at 3-5 after Air Force bucked an opening set setback with a sweep of the next three to repeat over the Lady Bulldogs, 14-25, 25-14, 25-12, 25-14, in the first game.
NU dropped to 3-5 and in danger of missing the Final Four cast.
Meanwhile, the Air Force-NU duel will be aired on GMA News TV Channel starting at 1 p.m. today while the Ateneo-PLDT clash will be shown tomorrow, according to the organizing Sports Vision.
While Air Force firmed up its hold of the No. 4 spot with a 5-3 card, Ateneo stayed in the hunt although the Lady Eagles will need a lot of catching up to do to overhaul the Raiders’ two-game edge in the battle for the last Final Four seat.
The loss dropped PLDT Home Telpad to 6-2, leaving Army and Cagayan Valley in the lead with 6-1 slates.
League’s top scorer Alyssa Valdez unleashed another 26-hit performance while Amy Ahomiro tossed in 10 markers and Miren Gequillana and Bea de Leon each had seven points as the Lady Eagles put one over the Turbo Boosters and their former mentor Roger Gorayeb, who swept them, 25-21, 25-13, 26-24, in the elims last July 7.
Suzanne Roces topscored for PLDT with 13 markers while Laurence Ann Latigay had nine hits but Gretchel Soltones added just eight points while seeing action only in the last two sets.
With Valdez on the attack, Ateneo outhit PLDT, 49-38, while the Lady Eagles made a good account of themselves on the other end, scoring seven blocks against their rivals’ five.
Earlier, Judy Caballejo and Joy Cases combined for 29 hits while Liza Deramos came through with five blocks in the fourth set to help seal the one-hour, 28-minute victory for the Raiders, who also swept the Lady Bulldogs to close out their elims campaign last July 29.