Lady Eagles, Falcons resume V-League Final 4 drive

Games today

2 p.m. – Adamson vs San Sebastian

4 p.m. – Arellano vs Ateneo

MANILA, Philippines - Ateneo hopes to come out strong coming off a long break as it resumes its hunt for a Final Four berth against Arellano today even as Adamson and San Sebastian square off at the start of the quarterfinal round in the Shakey’s V-League Season 10 at The Arena in San Juan.

The Lady Eagles didn’t see action since blanking La Salle-Dasmariñas last April 21 that capped their sweep of the Group A elims. But the back-to-back defending First Conference champions remain upbeat of their chances against Lady Chiefs in the  4 p.m. main encounter.

Arellano finished third in Group B with a 2-2 card, beating the University of San Carlos Lady Warriors and the Perpetual Help Lady Altas but losing to the National U Lady Bulldogs and the Lady Falcons in the elims of the league sponsored by Shakey’s and backed by Mikasa and Accel.

Still, the Bustillos-based squad is tipped as a major threat with Nerissa Bautista and Mary Jean Balse at the helm and ace setter Diane Ticar, Elaine Sagun, Danna Henson and Shirly Salamagos and libero Jonalyn Ibisa backing up the league’s former MVPs.

After a strong start against UST and San Sebastian, Ateneo slowed down against Letran and La Salle-Dasma, which it hurdled just the same although with top hitter Alyssa Valdez played limited minutes in the last two games as coach Roger Gorayeb tried new combinations.

But Valdez is expected to resume her role as the team’s chief attacker with support to come from ace guest player Rachel Anne Daquis, and mainstays Fille Cainglet, Marge Tejada, Mae Tajima and Leal Patnongon.

The 2 p.m. opener between Adamson and San Sebastian is also tipped to go down-to-the-wire with the former expecting a strong challenge from the latter, hard-pressed to bounce back from a poor 1-3 record in the elims, marred by its straight-set loss to La Salle-Dasma.

Based on their elims stints, Ateneo and Adamson, along with idle National U and UST, carry similar 1-0 slates in the quarters with SSC, Arellano, La Salle-Dasma and Perpetual all toting 0-1 marks.

Adamson, which finished second to NU (4-0) with a 3-1 card in the elims, hopes to draw the best again from guest player and former ace Angela Benting, Pau Soriano, Shiela Marie Pineda, Mylene Paat, Faye Guevarra and setter May Macatuno as they brace for an expected surge by the Lady Stags, led by Thai import Jeng Bualee and fellow guest player and former MVP Suzanne Roces.