De La Salle-College of Saint Benilde and Lyceum of the Philippines will begin a new rivalry in the league when the two meet in Game 1 of the NCAA Season 98 women’s volleyball tournament best-of-three finals on Tuesday.
Coming off a lengthy break, the defending champion Benilde and third-seed Lyceum clash at 2 p.m. at the FilOil EcoOil Centre.
The Lady Blazers are looking to duplicate the feat they achieved last season, where they swept all their games all the way to the Season 97 throne while also dethroning Arellano University in the process.
And the Taft crew has put itself in position to do it again. They were unblemished following the elimination round after the Jerry Yee-mentored squad went 9-0 to book an outright finals berth and create a stepladder semifinals format.
But they almost dropped two games after figuring in a pair of five-setters, one of which came, incidentally, against the gutsy Lady Pirates. Benilde eked out a hard-fought 22-25, 25-16, 16-25, 25-13, 15-9 victory behind Jade Gentapa and Gayle Pascual.
Although it wasn’t able to pull that off, Lyceum was still able to prove it can win big games when it mattered. The wards of second year coach Cromwel Garcia are coming off an upset win over second seed University of Perpetual Help System DALTA that formalized their first NCAA Finals appearance ever.
Meanwhile, opening the Tuesday double-header is the Perpetual and San Beda University’s finals series in the men’s division.
The Altas are looking to bag their third straight championship with a clean slate while San Beda, who booted out perennial contender Arellano University in the semifinals, is eyeing for its first in history.
—JMB, GMA Integrated News
