Colegio de San Juan de Letran and Lyceum of the Philippines University will slug it out in the second round of the stepladder semifinals on Wednesday with the last finals berth in the NCAA Season 99 women's volleyball tournament at stake.
The second-seeded Lady Knights and the third-ranked Lady Pirates will lock horns at 2 p.m. at the FilOil EcoOil Centre with the winner earning the right to face defending champion De La Salle-College of Saint Benilde in a best-of-three championship series.
Letran is seeking its first championship appearance since 2012, when they trooped to the finals stage against eventual champion University of Perpetual Help System in Season 87.
LPU, meanwhile, is hoping to make back-to-back finals runs following a bridesmaid finish in last year's Season 98, where the Lady Pirates fell short against the Lady Blazers.
Letran is also looking to repeat over LPU as it was the Lady Knights who dealt the Lady Pirates their first taste of defeat when the rookie duo of Yen Martin and Gia Maquilang connived to pull off a 24-26, 25-20, 25-22. 25-22 win, halting LPU's impressive 6-0 start.
That win proved crucial as Letran finished the eliminations with the second seed while LPU had to first hurdle the first step in the stepladder against Arellano University.
And Letran is expected to lean once more on their young guns, especially Martin and Maquilang, as they look to return to the finals for the first time in 12 years.
"Para sa kanila, maglalaro lang tayo based sa instructions and they know that the Lord is guiding them. Ang importante ay tama 'yung motivations," Letran head coach Oliver Almadro said.
[For them, they should just play based on the instructions and they know that the Lord is guiding them. The important thing is they have the right motivations.]
LPU, on the other hand, understands that facing Letran in a do-or-die match is a daunting task but Lady Pirates head coach Cromwel Garcia said they will just make the most of their advantage, which is their finals experience.
"Well-coached team sila ang maganda ‘yung galawan nila and maganda ‘yung galaw. But we will try our best na trabahuhin kung ano man ‘yung makikita naming advantage namin." Garcia shared.
"Actually ‘yung experience nu’ng last season sobrang laking bagay para sa amin kasi kumbaga nakita namin na hindi imposible na magapang namin ‘yung papuntang itaas eh."
[They're a well-coached team and they move really well. But we will try our best to work hard on whatever advantage we can find... Actually, our experience last season is huge for us because we saw that it wasn't impossible to make our way to the top.]
In men's play, Letran will also look to book the last finals berth when it takes on second-seeded Emilio Aguinaldo College at 10 a.m. in the same venue.
The Knights are coming off a four-set stunner against Arellano University to advance in the stepladder while the Generals are fresh off a 10-day break after ending their elimination round with a sole loss to top seed Perpetual.
The winner will earn a ticket to the championship round, where the three-time defending champions ALTAs are already waiting by virtue of sweeping the regular season.
—JMB, GMA Integrated News
