FAR Eastern U shrugged off a sluggish start to wallop San Beda College, 23-25, 25-6, 25-11, 25-14, last night and advance to the quarterfinal round of the Shakey’s V-League Season 13 Collegiate Conference at PhilSports Arena in Pasig.
With their power game finally clicking, the Lady Tamaraws regained their deadly form starting the second set as they rolled to a second straight victory in Group B.
Hounded by errors, FEU conceded the first set to a San Beda team desperate to stay in the thick of the fight for a playoff berth.
But the Lady Tamaraws regrouped, toughening their defense at the net as Toni Rose Basas, Bernadeth Pons and team captain Mary Joy Palma provided firepower.
With the win, FEU joined University of the Philippines and University of Santo Tomas in the next round.
The Red Spikers dropped to 0-3, ending their hopes of making the quarterfinals just like the Blazers.
The top three teams in the two-group, five-squad tourney advance to the quarters with their respective eliminations records, the top four moving to the best-of-three series.
“We only started playing in the second set,” said FEU coach Shaq delos Santos. “We’re happy we made it to the quarterfinals because that’s our first goal.”
Basas wound up with 19 points while Pons and Palma contributed 14 and 13 hits, respectively.
The Lady Tamaraws also drew strength from Kyle Negrita, who came off the bench to dish out 41 excellent sets in place of the struggling Maria Angelica Cayuna.
Earlier, UST pulled off 25-14, 24-26, 23-25, 25-22, 15-13 victory over San Beda to force a three-way tie for the Group B lead in the Spikers’ Turf Season 2 Collegiate Conference.
FEU also rebounded from a straight-set blowout to NU with a 25-17, 26-28, 25-15, 25-21 drubbing of St. Benilde in Group A.
Jomaru Amagan and Manuel Medina joined forces for 45 hits but the Tigers needed an hour and 49 minutes to foil the Lions (0-2).
The Tamaraws got a combined 59-hit effort from Paul Bugaoan, Greg Dolor, Richard Solis and Jude Garcia, as they toppled the Blazers for joint third with La Salle behind National U and Perpetual Help’s 2-0 slates.