Lady Altas smother Warriors, gain quarters

MANILA, Philippines - Faced with the specter of elimination, reigning NCAA champion Perpetual Help showed its true worth and swept University of San Carlos, 25-14, 25-19, 25-19, to clinch the last quarterfinal berth in the Shakey’s V-League Season 10 First Conference at The Arena in San Juan yesterday.

The Lady Altas, who dropped their first two games in the single round elims in Group B, imposed their will early, firing away kills from both sides while flashing superb reception to frustrate the Lady Warriors and finish off the Cebu champions in 71 minutes.

It was Perpetual Help’s first win in three games but it was enough to put the Lady Altas into the quarters alongside unbeaten National U, Adamson U and newcomer Arellano U.

USC took its fourth straight setback and bowed out of the contention in the league sponsored by Shakey’s Pizza and backed by Mikasa and Accel.

Honey Royse Tubino and April Sartin each unloaded 11 hits while Norie Diaz, Joy Cases and Sandra delos Santos combined for 24 points as Perpetual overpowered USC, 39-28, to anchor their victory.

Suzette Panis and Meth Bate came through with 11 attacks each but the Lady Warriors failed to sustain their fightback in the last two sets, losing steam with erratic plays and foiled attacks by the tough defending Lady Altas.

Perpetual hopes to sustain the win when it goes up against Adamson in the final elims playdate on Sunday in a bid to improve its record heading to the carryover quarters phase.

The Las Piñas-based squad also pounced on USC’s poor reception, scoring eight service aces and gained 25 points from its rival’s miscues.?

“It helped that they started out well since they tend to struggle after a shaky start,” said Perpetual coach Sandy Rieta, who took over from head mentor Jason Sapin, in Filipino.

Meanwhile, the Perpetual-USC match will be shown today starting at 1 p.m. on GMA News TV Channel 11 while the UST-Letran duel, being played at presstime, will be aired tomorrow, also at 1 p.m., according to the organizing Sports Vision.