Colegio de San Juan de Letran has a new finals challenger in Lyceum of the Philippines University as the two schools arranged a championship showdown in the NCAA Season 100 women's beach volleyball tournament.
The two-time defending champion Lady Knights pulled off a masterclass against Emilio Aguinaldo College, 21-10, 21-9 in the semifinals while the Lady Pirates survived a gritty stand from San Beda University, 21-8, 25-23 as they headed to the championship round.
The Lady Pirates completed a clean yet difficult sweep of San Beda University, 21-8, 25-23, in their semifinals encounter.
LPU, who rose from a 2-7 finish last season to top seed this year with an impressive 8-1 slate, found itself in a 19-17 deficit in the crucial second set when Reyann Cañete got lucky on her underhand pass.
However, back-to-back errors from the Lady Red Spikers allowed LPU to tie things up before Cañete's strong attack had San Beda cruising to the set point at 20-19.
The two teams traded attacks before Cañete steered San Beda to another set point, 23-22, but Monna Banares unloaded a perfect dunk attack that forced a 23-all deadlock. Stacey Lopez then pushed the ball over the defense of Angel Habacon as Banares sealed it for LPU.
It was a different story for Letran as the three-peat-seeking Lady Knights hardly broke a sweat in their dominant victory against the Lady Generals.
Gia Maquilang served up an ace to bring the Muralla crew to the match point at 20-9 before the sophomore star went for a one-two attack to finish EAC off.
Letran and LPU will duke it out in the finals on Sunday.
—JKC, GMA Integrated News
