Free-for-all V-League to open sans champs UST, DLSU

MANILA, Philippines - The first conference of the 2008 Shakey's V-League will be a wide-open race because of the absence of the University of Santo Tomas (UST) and the De La Salle University (DLSU) squads. This was the assessment of the V-League officials and coaches who attended Tuesday's Philippine Sportswriters Association (PSA) Forum at the Shakey's UN Avenue branch in Malate, Manila. "They're all tams to beat," coach Ernesto Pamilar of the Far Eastern University (FEU) said. "That's precisely why the V-League invited them – because they're strong. So it's hard to say. Just because you're UAAP champion doesn't necessarily mean you're the favorite." In this fifth season of the league, the solid fan favorites appear to be FEU, champion of the University Athletics Association of the Philippines (UAAP), and San Sebastian College (SSC), champion of the National Collegiate Athletics Association (NCAA). But for all the coaches of the six competing teams, just about every school has a good shot at winning the championship, even the two entries from down South - the University of St. La Salle (USLS) in Bacolod and the University of San Jose Recolletos (USJR) in Cebu City. "It's not that we're playing safe, but all the teams are capable of winning," coach Sherwin Meneses of Adamson University said. "It all really depends on how they play during the actual games." Aside from Pamilar and Meneses, the other coaches who graced the public sports program were rookie mentor Michelle Laborte of Ateneo de Manila University (AdMU), Benjamin Mape of Lyceum, Roger Gorayeb of SSC, and Edwin Leyva of V-League newcomer College of St. Benilde (CSB). They were joined by Shakey's marketing director Meggie Jose and Sports Vision Management Group Inc's Moying Martelino (chairman), Ricky Palou (vice president and tournament director), Nola Bernardino (director), and Chito Loyzaga (director). In the league's first four seasons, DLSU and UST split the six titles at stake, winning three each, including a two-conference sweep by the Tigresses of last year's tournament. But academic reasons forced the two champion teams to pull out of the meet two weeks prior to its start. "As far as I can remember, there was a time that US begged off from one conference, but that didn't lessen the popularity of the V-League," SSC coach Gorayeb noted. "It probably won't affect the league if the two teams (UST and La Salle) are absent," Adamson coach Meneses said. "And the two teams from the Visayas are also strong and will surely draw spectators." The opening games on March 30 will pit Ateneo against Lyceum at 2 p.m., while San Sebastian tests the mettle of the St. Benilde in the second game at 4 p.m. A one-hour opening ceremonies usher the tournament starting at 1 p.m. Both USLS and USJR won't see action until the quarterfinals, when they battle out the third to sixth teams in a single round-robin format. The top two teams after the double round elimination gain an outright berth in the semifinals. The two squads that will emerge with the best record by the end of the quarterfinals get to join the two seeded teams to the semis. An incentive however, awaits the school that wins three of its ifive games in the quarterfinals, earning it an outright playoff for the second semis berth against the no. 2 team in the final six. The two teams then that survive the single-round semis get to advance in the best-of-three finals. - GMANews.TV