Perpetual, St. Benilde volleybelles eye share of lead

St. Benilde Lady Blazers. CONTRIBUTED PHOTO

Perpetual Help and St. Benilde shoot for a share of the lead with defending champion Arellano University as the two tackle San Beda and Lyceum respectively today in the 93rd NCAA volleyball tournament at Filoil Arena in San Juan City.

The Lady Altas got off to an impressive start as they downed the Lady Pirates, 25-21, 25-17, 25-22, Sunday while the Lady Blazers trounced the Letran Lady Knights, 25-22, 25-11, 25-20, last week to likewise jump-start their campaign.

The Perpetual-SBC duel is set at 2 p.m. while the LPU-CSB showdown is at 12:30 p.m.

Macky Carino of Perpetual and Arnold Laniog of St. Benilde were also impressive in their coaching debuts.

“We’ve set big goals for this year but initially, we want to make it to the Final Four first,” said Carino, who was the coach when CSB won the women’s title two years ago before making a big jump late last year to take over from Sammy Acaylar.

For Laniog, who succeeded Carino, losing is not an option.

“This is a short tournament so every victory counts,” he said.

In their first game under Carino, the Las Piñas-based spikers looked every bit a contender with Maria Lourdes Clemente, Cindy Imbo and Bianca Tripoli leading the way with 14, 13 and 10 points, respectively.

But Perpetual Help expects to have rough sailing against San Beda, a semifinalist last year, which opened its campaign with a 23-25, 25-19, 13-25, 25-19, 15-9 win Friday.

“We’re preparing for a tough match because San Beda is a veteran team,” said Carino.