COLLEGE of Saint Benilde swept Jose Rizal University, 25-13, 25-21, 25-9, to punch the first Final Four ticket in the NCAA women’s volleyball tournament at the Paco Arena yesterday.

Jade Gentapa came through with 16 points, including two service aces, while Michelle Gamit fired four aces for a 12-point outing as the Lady Blazers extended their perfect run to seven matches.

Later, Mapua moved to solo fourth following a 25-22, 16-25, 18-25, 25-18, 15-12 victory over Lyceum of the Philippines University.

Tere Manalo and Nicole Ong produced clutch kills in the deciding set as the Lady Cardinals snapped a two-match losing skid to improve to 4-3.

Achieving its initial goal of making it to the Final Four, CSB now has a shot of jumping straight to the Finals via 9-0 sweep.

For Lady Blazers mentor Jerry Yee, he is taking things step by step.

“Excited. Siyempre, masaya. Pero hindi pa tapos, ang dami pang games. We just hope to play our best,” said Yee, who is handling CSB since 2019.

The Lady Blazers were also 7-0 in 2020 and have already secured a place to the semifinals but the season was scrapped due to pandemic.

In Yee’s first season in CSB, the Taft-based squad made it to the Final Four but lost to University of Perpetual Help System Dalta despite having a twice-to-beat bonus for being the No. 1 team in the eliminations.

With the materials Yee have in his disposal, the Lady Blazers are looking good in their best to capture their first title since 2016.

CSB needed only 67 minutes to post its sixth straight-set win of the season.

The Lady Bombers, however, gave the Lady Blazers fits in the second set.

JRU was able to save a set point courtesy of a Sydney Riegos kill right after Gentapa drilled in back-to-back spikes. Substitute Queen Ann Salmon then produced a kill to put the Lady Blazers two sets up.

Gayle Pascual, who scored most of her seven points in the first set, said the Lady Blazers need to polish on their on-court attitude as they tend to go complacent whenever they are ahead.

“Siguro yung attitude namin sa court and yung endgame namin, masyado kaming nagiging complacent tapos akala namin tapos na yung game,” Pascual said.

“Pero hindi pa naman tapos so plan namin i-workout ‘yung composure namin sa loob ng court.”

Mycah Go and Cristy Ondangan matched Pascual’s seven-point effort, while setter Cloanne Mondoñedo chipped in four points and tossed in 18 excellent sets for CSB.

Kia Melgar scored seven points while Dolly Verzosa also had seven points and collected six digs for the Lady Bombers, who fell to 3-4 in a tie with the Lady Pirates in fifth place.

Mapua ended its slump in style, winning its third five-setter match of the season to wheel back in Final Four contention.

“Struggle talaga kami. Napakabigat ito. Ibinuhos na talaga namin. Yung mga player, yung kapit nila, gusto talaga,” said Lady Cardinals mentor Aying Esteban.

Jonina Fernandez, playing in her final year for Mapua, had a solid game of 15 points and 14 digs while Manalo and Ong added 14 points apiece.

The loss negated Zonxi Dahab’s 22-point outing for LPU.

Games tomorrow

(Paco Arena)
12 noon – SSC-R vs San Beda
2:30 p.m. – EAC vs Arellano