Tigresses beat Lady Stags to grab 2nd V-League crown

The University of Santo Tomas Tigresses outlasted San Sebastian College Lady Stags in another heart-pounding five-setter, 20-25, 25-23, 27-29, 25-15, 15-9, to bag its second straight Shakey's V-League crown before a packed crowd at The Arena in San Juan Tuesday night. Venus Bernal again led the Tigresses, dishing out out a monster game with 25 hits, including 24 attacks. But it was the Tigresses' solid net defense and superb court coverage that carried them through, particularly in the last two sets that capped their fighting back from 1-2 down to clinch the victory, according to a league statement. With their defense holding, the Tigresses also proved to have a deeper bench as Bernal, Mary Jean Balse, guest player Suzanne Roces, and Ma. Angeli Tabaquero outscored their opponents. Bernal and Balse, who also had six blocks, combined for 49 points to negate the 50-point effort of Thai import Bualee Jaroensri and Laurence Ann Latigay of San Sebastian. "I just played my best because we really worked hard for this," Bernal said. Bernal's last 24th kill wrapped up the two-hour match. She was later named the finals' Most Valuable Player. With the top SSC hitters neutralized, Roces and Tabaquero scored 27 points between themselves, while Aiza Maizo, Denise Patricia Tan, and Joanna Marie Torrijos added seven points for UST, which wrapped up the best-of-three series, 3-2. "When we solved their attacking game, I knew that we would win this one," UST coach August Santamaria said. UST, which ruled the inaugural staging of the event in 2004 and swept SSC for the first conference title last July, thus matched De La Salle University's three title romps in the league. Unlike in the first time out, the Tigresses had to go through the proverbial eye of the needle to repeat their victory over the Lady Stags. Flashing some kind of resiliency, the España-based squad fought back from a heartbreaking five-set setback to SSC in the series' opener with a sweep in Game Two. But after taking the first set in the deciding game, the Tigresses dropped two closely fought sets, including a pulsating 27-29 loss in the third frame that put the Lady Stags within a set from scoring a breakthrough victory. But the first conference champions never got discouraged as Bernal and Balse imposed their will in the last two sets, hitting the shots that mattered most while foiling SSC's attacks with their net defense. - GMANews.TV