Stags foil Water Dragons’ playoff bid

THE SAN SEBASTIAN Lady Stags foiled Maynilad’s bid for the playoff as they prevailed in straight sets, 25-22, 25-23, 25-20, at the close of the quarterfinal round in the Shakey’s V-League Open Conference at The Arena in San Juan yesterday.

League-leading scorer and spiker Lauren Ford came through with another power game with 16 attacks while Rubie de Leon and Thai import Jang Baulee tossed in 11 points a piece and Joy Benito added 10 hits for the Lady Stags, who tied the Army Lady Troopers on top at 4-1 (win-loss).

But Army took the No. 1 spot in the semis as SSC failed to limit Maynilad to a maximum of 40 total points to gain the top seeding in the next round where the top meet will meet the No. 4 squad and the Nos. 2 and 3 teams clash in a pair of best-of-three playoffs.

Maynilad, which sprang back to life with a four-set victory over Army last Sunday, ended up with a 1-4 slate.

The hard-working Joy Cases dished out a game-high 19-point performance, highlighted by 15 kills, while Mervic Mangui, Nica Guliman and Beverly Boto had eight points each. Syvie Artates, however, was held to just four points.

The Lady Stags imposed their will at the net, firing 49 attacks against the Water Dragons’ 37. But Maynilad had more blocks, 8-6, and scored five points off the serve as against SSC’s two. But the Recoletos-based squad cashed in on its power, coming up with a number of quick set-ups behind Ford, Baulee and de Leon which the Water Dragons had failed to neutralize. /Correspondent Jonas Panerio