Benilde nips San Beda as Lady Blazers cut hair

MANILA, Philippines — Players of defending women's champion St. Benilde cut their hair short after losing to Lyceum of the Phl late last year. They will probably shave their heads bald if they lose another one.

Using this as motivation, the Lady Blazers rallied to beat the San Beda Red Spikers, 12-25, 25-17, 25-23, 25-19 to regain solo second place and close in on a Final Four spot in the 92nd NCAA volleyball tournament at the Filoil Flying V Center in San Juan City Thursday, January 5.

Rachel Anne Austerio led her team with 13 points while last year's Finals MVP Jeanette Panaga, Jan Arianne Daguil and Ranya Musa scattered 11 hits each to lift St. Benilde to its sixth victory against a loss.

One more win and St. Benilde, which tackles Arellano U on Jan. 11 and unbeaten leader San Sebastian Jan. 25, could clinch at least a playoff for a berth in the Final Four while two triumphs would clinch it a spot there outright.

It also prevented the Lady Blazers from losing more hair.

"When we lost to LPU, I was surprised they cut their hair short because they wagered among themselves that they will do that if they lose," said St. Benilde coach Macky Carino, whose charges fell to LPU, 22-25, 26-24, 18-25, 25-20, 10-15, last December.

"I don't know how many hairs they will cut if they lose again, so I'm glad we didn't. I'm also happy that my team is whole because of this," he added.

San Beda looked like it would beat this same St. Benilde squad it defeated in the Shakey's V-League Collegiate Conference last year when it went on attack mode early and took the first by a wide margin.

And then St. Benilde turned things around.

"We were more focused on what they are going to do than we are going to do in the first set, that slowed us down. We changed our mindset after it and it helped us a lot," said Carino.

The Red Spikers fell to 5-3.

In the men's division, Johnvic de Guzman towed St. Benilde to a 25-19, 25-23, 25-17 win over San Beda to grab the solo lead with a 6-1 mark.

The Lions slid to second with a 6-2 card.