source: By FRANCIS SANTIAGO / mb.com.phGames Sunday (The Arena, San Juan)
2 p.m. – FEU vs Lyceum
4 p.m. – San Sebastian vs Ateneo
MANILA, Philippines – A bad news greeted coach Emil Lontoc and the Lyceum Lady Pirates when they arrived at The Arena in San Juan on Thursday.
To their disappointment, they were informed that their first two Shakey’s V-League games were forfeited because of a player eligibility violation.
But whether they were affected by the shocking news, it hardly showed in pulling off a 25-12, 17-25, 25-21, 25-15 triumph against San Sebastian College a few hours later.
“It’s just another adversity we have to overcome. It (forfeiture) only gave us more motivation to win and work harder,” Lontoc said in the post game interview.
With former two-time MVP Mary Jean Balse at the helm, the Lady Pirates were almost unstoppable at the net, outgunning their highly-touted rivals to show everyone that they can trade punches against anybody as long as the bout is held on the court.
The Lady Pirates lost a battle outside the court after the league found that the school fielded in an eligible player in Carla Benedicto when the Lady Pirates held off the Cobras, 21-25, 27-25, 25-16, 25-15, last April 5, sending them back to the drawing board with a 0-2 record.
But the Lady Pirates were hardly bothered and easily improved to 1-2 by thumping the SSC lasses, who hardly looked a team that finished as runner up in the past two conferences.
Save for a second set lapse, the Lady Pirates controlled the tempo of the game as they raced to a series of 10-point leads in the first set before an error, gave them the match at 25-12.
The SSC lasses, who missed the injured Analyn Benito to a left ankle injury, bounced back in the next frame behind guest player Cherry Macatangay only to fall again in the third set no thanks to their error-prone plays.
The SSC lasses failed to recover from their woeful play, committing 11 of their 23 errors in the fourth set that spelled doom for the school, which slipped to 0-2.
Balse, one of the finest products produced by University of Santo Tomas, fired 24 points, including two aces while Joy Cases and Dahlia Cruz combined for 22 hits as Lyceum kept alive its bid for a quarterfinal slot.
Ateneo and University of Perpetual Help clinched the first two slots after improving to 3-0 while SWU (3-1) also made it after benefiting from the Lyceum forfeiture.
It was the second time three days the league forfeited a game. On Tuesday, V-League commissioner Tony Liao also forfeited Adamson University's straight-set win over Perpetual after violating a league rule on fielding a guest player.
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