Tigresses outlast Tams, earn shot at No. 2 spot

MANILA, Philippines - Third seed University of Santo Tomas shrugged off a slow start to hack out a 25-22, 23-25, 25-17, 25-21 win over No. 4 Far Eastern U and advance to the next phase of the stepladder semis of the UAAP Season 74 women’s volleyball action at The Arena in San Juan yesterday.

Veterans Maru Banaticla (18 points), Maika Ortiz (15 points) and Judy Caballejo (11 points) spearheaded the attack for the Tigresses, who refused to go down despite teetering on the brink at least twice in the match.

The España-based tossers went down, 7-15, at the start of the game but fiercely fought back to steal the set. After taking a 2-1 set lead, the Tigresses faced a 15-19 deficit in the fourth but quickly rebounded to  secure the win and a shot at the No. 2 and twice-to-beat Ateneo.

“We were telling ourselves this is what we’ve been preparing for all season long so we gave it our all (amid tremendous pressure from the Lady Tams),” Banaticla, who made 15 hits and scored three points off blocks, said in Filipino.

The Tigresses will meet the Lady Eagles on Saturday, needing to beat the Ateneans twice to reach the finals against finalist-in-waiting La Salle. The defending champion Lady Archers swept the elims for an outright championship berth and a thrice-to-beat bonus.

Rosemari Vargas, the league’s top scorer, normed 18 points for FEU, which had to beat Adamson in a playoff for the No. 4 slot the other day before facing No. 3 UST.

In the men’s Final Four, fourth-ranked Archers drubbed top seed FEU Tamaraws, 25-18, 14-25, 25-23, 25-20, to force a rubber match for a championship berth.

Christopher Antonio punched in 16 points, 14 coming off hits, as the Archers set another date with the Tamarraws on Wednesday with a finals slot up for grabs.

DLSU prevailed despite yielding 51 spikes to the Tams (against their 34), making a killing on blocks (16, led by Brendon Santos’ six and Phili Cerveza’s five pointers off blocks) and pouncing on 38 errors from the FEU side.

The Archers spoiled the 25-point performance of JR Labrador for the 2010 runners-up Tams.