Lady Eagles seek to firm up lead vs Warays

ATENEO-Motolite, still on high one week after stopping Creamline in a classic five- setter, tries to solidify its hold of the lead as it tangles with Tacloban at resumption of the second round elims in the Premier Volleyball League Season 2 Open Conference at the Filoil Flying V Center in San Juan today.

With Kat Tolentino Maddie Madayag and Ponggay Gaston back in the fold, the Lady Eagles battled the Alyssa Valdez-led Cool Smashers spike-forspike and block-for-block, hacking out a thrilling 25-18, 25-20, 15-25, 23-25, 15-12 victory right in Valdez’s hometown in Batangas City last week.

That hiked Ateneo’s card to 7-2 while snapping Creamline’s run at six and dropping the Cool Smashers to joint second with the BanKo-Perlas Spikers at 6-2.

That also makes the Lady Eagles the favorites in their 4 p.m. encounter with the Fighting Warays with the former seeking to duplicate their five-set escape over the latter in their first round face- off last October 17.

Tolentino, Madayag and Gaston,

STANDINGS

Ateneo Creamline BanKo-Perlas PetroGazz

W 7 6 6 4

L 2 2 2 3 along with Bea de Leon, Deanna Wong and rookie Vanessa Gandler are again expected to sustain their form against the likes of Jovielyn Prado, Dimdin Pacres, Mary Anne Esguerra, Heather Guino- o, who are also out to fuel the Warays’ semifinal drive.

Tacloban, which upended PocariAir Force in five last Oct. 24 but dropped a four- setter to a surging Iriga- Navy side last October 28, is in joint fifth with Pocari at 4-5 and needs to pile up as many victories as it could to stay in the Final Four hunt.

PetroGazz, meanwhile, returns from a long three-week break as it collides with Iriga-Navy at 6 p.m. with the Angels, who closed out their first round campaign with a 4-3 mark, out to keep their hold of No. 4. But the Lady Oragons are mounting a challenge, winning their last two matches to improve to 3-7 heading to the homestretch of the double-round elims of the season- ending conference of the league organized by Sports Vision and backed by Mikasa and Asics.

GAMES TODAY (Saturday) (Filoil Flying V, San Juan) 4 p.m. – Ateneo-Motolite vs Tacloban

6 p.m. – PetroGazz vs Iriga-Navy