Lady Stags seal V-League title duel with Army

MANILA, Philippines—San Sebastian backed up its coach with a power game that proved too much for Philippine Navy.

The Lady Stags made light work of the Lady Sailors, 25-13, 25-18, 25-19, Thursday to set up a championship duel with powerhouse Army in the Shakey’s V-League Season 8 Open Conference at the FilOil Flying V Arena in San Juan.

The Lady Troopers also finished off the Ateneo Lady Eagles, 25-19, 25-21, 25-22, in over an hour to also complete a 2-0 semifinal series victory in the second game.

Right after its Game 1 win last Sunday, San Sebastian coach Roger Gorayeb declared that the Lady Stags were already looking forward to facing Army in the finals.

Thai import Jeng Bualee, American reinforcement Lauren Ford and key addition Jeniffer Manzano made sure that their coach didn’t eat his words after flashing superb form in tearing the Lady Sailors’ defense to shreds.

Game 1 of the best-of-three finals between two teams which split their two matches early in the tournament starts at 4 p.m. Sunday. Ateneo and Navy will also meet in a best-of-three series for third place.

Bualee, playing second fiddle to Ford all tournament long, rose to the occasion with 23 points on 21 kills  while Manzano, picked up by San Sebastian from already-eliminated Air Force, contributed 12 points.

Ford, who already has two 30-point games in the event, had a quiet outing with 10 points.

Navy’s attack was severely blunted by the absence of Nene Bautista, who missed the game because of an ankle injury she sustained in Game 1.

Former MVP Aiza Maizo scored 17 points for   the Lady Sailors, who had  difficulty neutralizing the Lady Stags’ ace hitters.