BUREAU of Customs and BaliPure shoot for the last two semifinal berths as they take on Coast Guard and Laoag, respectively, in the Shakey’s V-League Season 13 Reinforced Conference on Wednesday at the PhilSports Arena in Pasig City.
The Transformers (3-2) missed a chance to barge into the Final Four last Saturday, absorbing a stinging 22-25, 22-25, 14-25 loss to the Pocari Sweat Lady Warriors.
But Alyssa Valdez and company are favored over winless Coast Guard (0-5) in their 4 p.m. encounter. A victory will send Customs to the next round of the league, sponsored by Shakey’s, with UST and Pocari.
Valdez, who leads the Most Valuable Player (MVP) race for topping the scoring and serving departments, ranking No. 2 in spiking and seventh in digs, is again expected to lead Customs. But the two-time league MVP and many-time University Athletic Association of the Philippines top player hopes to draw solid backup from Thai reinforcements Kanjana Kuthaisong and setter Nattanicha Jaisaen.
“We just lost focus in that game [against Pocari], but I’m confident we could recover from it,” Customs Coach Sherwin Meneses said.
BaliPure, meanwhile, is on a roll, sweeping three matches after losing to UST on October 8. The Purest Water Defenders’ 25-13, 25-23, 25-17 victory over the University of the Philippines Lady Maroons last Saturday put them closer to a dream semifinals stint in the season-ending conference of the league, backed by Mikasa as official ball and Accel as official outfitter.
Image credits: Nonoy Lacza