Arellano, Saint Benilde begin NCAA finals duel

DE LA SALLE-College of Saint Benilde and defending champion Arellano University begin their best-of-three finals series in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Season 97 women's volleyball tournament today, July 20.

Game One is set at 2 p.m. at the Filoil Flying V Center in San Juan.

The Lady Blazers are coming off an 11-day break after sweeping the elimination round of the tournament and gaining an outright berth to the championship showdown.

Saint Benilde last saw action on July 9 when it dominated the four-peat seeking Lady Chiefs, 25-15, 25-15, 25-14, for its ninth win in the tournament.

Lady Blazers head coach Jerry Yee believes that his team, which has won 16 straight games dating back to the pandemic-scrapped Season 95, is determined to win it all this year.

"We want to get this championship by being sharp and that's why we don't want to make errors," said Yee.

"I brought this up to them (Lady Blazers), we want to be champions because we're good. We demand a lot from ourselves because we want to win by being the best."

Saint Benilde had been razor sharp in the eliminations, dropping just a single set overall. That was against Colegio de San Juan de Letran when Yee decided to tinker with his rotation and allowed the second stringers to play in the second set of that game.

The final tally of that game on June 19 was 25-14, 17-25, 25-11, 25-15.

The Blazers were so dominant that they were finishing matches in the eliminations in 70-80 minutes on the average. On June 28, Saint Benilde recorded its fastest game at 67 minutes in sweeping Mapua University, 25-17, 25-11, 25-12.

Arellano head coach Obet Javier knows fully well how good the Lady Blazers are and he welcomes the challenge.

"Benilde is a strong team and it will be a good challenge for us," said Javier.

"We know that we have to go through the eye of the needle but as I've said if you're being challenged, you have to accept it and overcome it."

Arellano finished the elims with a 7-2 record, second to Saint Benilde.

The Lady Chiefs defeated fourth seed Jose Rizal University in the final phase of the stepladder semifinals, 19-25, 25-20, 27-25, 25-17, last Sunday to keep their bid for a fourth straight championship alive.

Source: TheManila Times