THEY have earlier secured places in the six-team quarterfinals, but Cagayan Valley and Ateneo de Manila look to add to their wins when they clash on the final day of eliminations on Thursday to boost their chances in the next phase of the V-League Open Conference at The Arena in San Juan.
The records in the eliminations will be carried over to the quarterfinals, which means the 4 p.m. Lady Eagles-Rising Suns match is still very important.
The Cagayan Valley squad led by Aiza Maizo and Janine Marciano has a 5-1 win-loss record in third and a win will put the Lady Rising Suns in a three-way tie for the lead. The Alyssa Valdez-led Lady Eagles have won only two of their six matches and sit in sixth, but a win will enable them to match National U’s record.
Co-leaders PLDT and Army (6-1), Air Force (4-3) and NU (3-4) have also earlier advanced to the quarterfinals, a single round robin affair with the top four moving on to the crossover semifinals.
Also-rans PNP and UP, both winless in six matches, face off at 2 p.m.
Valdez is the top individual scorer in the Open Conference so far with an average of 25.8 points per game.
But the MVP last season in the UAAP couldn’t get the needed numbers from the other Lady Eagles, although she made it clear what she wants is for her young teammates to gain experience in preparation for the collegiate volleyball wars.
The Lady Eagles actually dished out a fine performance against Army on Tuesday, giving the Super Liga triple champion a huge scare before fading in the fifth set. It was their second straight loss after a four-set defeat to NU.
“Like Army, Cagayan is an experienced team and hopefully may matutunan kami sa kanila and I hope we can also give them a good game," said Valdez.
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