Lyceum clinches Shakey’s V-League quarterfinals

MANILA, Philippines—Lyceum recovered from a sluggish second set to pummel National U, 25-16, 23-25, 25-16, 25-13, Thursday night and clinch a quarterfinal berth in the Shakey’s V-League Season 7 second conference at the FilOil Flying V Arena in San Juan.   Guest players Mary Jean Balse and Dahlia Cruz pooled 35 points to spark the Lady Pirates, who wrapped up their elimination-round campaign with a 4-3 record.   More importantly, the victory allowed the Lady Pirates to join San Sebastian-Excelroof, Adamson, Far Eastern U and Ateneo in the next round.   “We achieved our initial goal of reaching the quarterfinals,” said Lyceum coach Emil Lontoc, whose squad had a 98-70 edge on attack points. “Now, we can focus on making the semifinals.”   The Lady Bulldogs fell to 2-4, but still hold the inside track for the last quarterfinal berth over fellow newcomer Perpetual Help, which dropped to 1-5 after losing to Far Easten U in straight sets earlier.   Except for a solid performance in the second set, National U couldn’t get anything going as setter Jocelyn Soliven struggled mightily.   Soliven had just 22 excellent sets on 97 attempts, faring worse than her Lyceum counterpart Nicole Tabafunda completed 46 on 104 tries.   Balse finished with 20 points on 18 hits and got solid support from Cruz and Joy Cases, who contributed 15 and 14 points, respectively. Jamie Pena and Christine Casanova also combined for 19 points for the Lady Pirates.   Mervic Mangui collected 14 points and Maricar Nepomuceno tallied 11 for the Lady Bulldogs, who could clinch a quarterfinal berth with a victory over Ateneo on Sunday.