Letran College will go for the kill when it battles defending champion College of Saint Benilde in Game 2 of the Season 101 National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Season 101 women’s volleyball best-of-three finals series today at the Rizal Memorial Coliseum.
Action starts at 2:30 p.m. with the Lady Knights looking to win the title that will put an end to their 27-year drought in the country’s oldest collegiate league.
Letran is oozing with momentum after pulling off a thrilling 17-25, 25-23, 20-25, 25-14, 15-11 win in Game 1 to move a heartbeat away from ending the Lady Blazers’ five-year reign.
Still, Letran vows to be cautious with head coach Mayeth Carolino reminding her wards that the reigning champions will not go down without putting up a fight.
“The first win, while crucial, is already over. We cannot relax, and we know how dangerous Saint Benilde is, so we need to end this in Game 2,” Carolino, a Letran legend who played for the national team that clinched the bronze medal in the 2005 Southeast Asian Games in Bacolod City, said.
Judiel Nitura, the sister of Adamson University star Shaina Nitura, agrees, saying that they are bracing for a grueling battle against the team that has been ruling the league for the past five years.
“I t’s not over yet. There is still Game 2 and we need to do better,” said Nitura, who supplied the offensive muscles with 21 points in Game 1.
Aside from Nitura, Vanessa Sarie and Gia Maquilang will also be scoring options as they dropped 19 and 18 points, respectively, for the Lady Knights in the series opener.
For Saint Benilde, Zam Nolasco and Cam Bartolome are expected to put up solid performances if they want to forge a winner-take-all Game 3 on Friday at the same Manila venue.
Nolasco dropped 21 points while Bartolome finished with 15 markers but faded in the crucial stretch due to the suffocating Letran defense.