Lady Falcons seek last semis berth vs Tigresses

Games today

2 p.m. – NU vs St. Benilde

4 p.m. – UST vs Adamson

MANILA, Philippines - Adamson sets out for its most important game against semifinalist University of Santo Tomas today, seeking no less than a victory and the last semifinal berth in the Shakey’s V-League Season 11 First Conference at The Arena in San Juan City.

Finding themselves in the threshold of the Final Four following a morale-boosting sweep of the Davao Agilas last Tuesday, the Lady Falcons go all-out for a win against the Tigresses in their 4 p.m. clash expected to go down-to-the-wire.

An Adamson victory will also slam the door shut on Ateneo and Davao, which, however, will be praying for a UST (2-0) win to force a three-way tie for second, with the Lady Falcons, the Lady Eagles and the Agilas ending up with 1-2 cards.

In that scenario, Ateneo will clinch the No. 2 spot with Adamson and Davao to clash in the first of two playoffs with the winner facing the Lady Eagles for the last semis seat.

But the Lady Falcons will be pouring it all out against the Tigresses with Shiela Pineda, Pau Soriano and Thai reinforcement Pacharee Sangmuang expected to step their respective games a notch higher and the rest raring to provide the needed support to stop the six-time champions.

But UST, which swept Ateneo last Sunday to nail the first semis spot in Group 1, will also be trying to get into the semis on a roll, guaranteeing a slambang action at the close of the tightly-fought single round quarterfinal phase of the season-opening conference of the league sponsored by Shakey’s.

To stop UST, the Lady Falcons will have to neutralize the power-hitting Ennajie Laure, a high school phenom who has anchored the Tigresses’ impressive stint in the league backed by Mikasa, Accel and Lion Tiger Mosquito Coil. Norming 14 hits in seven games, Laure has also been drawing solid backup from Pam Lastimosa, Carmela Tunay, Rhea Dimaculangan, Loren Lantin, Jessey de Leon and Marivic Meneses, the league’s top blocker.

National U, meanwhile, tries to complete its sweep of Group 2 as it collides winless St. Benilde in the 2 p.m. opener.

The defending champion Lady Bulldogs will face the No. 2 team from Group I in the crossover semis while UST will take on Far Eastern U in the other best-of-three Final Four encounter.

The winners will dispute the crown in another best-of-three affair.

Games can be viewed live on www.v-league.ph <http://www.v-league.ph/>  with the Adamson-Davao encounter last Tuesday to be aired today (Thursday), according to the organizing Sports Vision. The NU-St. Benilde clash and the UST-Adamson faceoff will be telecast tomorrow (Friday).