Unbeaten University of Sto. Tomas squares off with Lyceum for a ticket into the second round of the Shakey’s Super League Collegiate Pre-season Championship at the Rizal Memorial Coliseum on Saturday (Oct. 22).
The Tigresses sport a perfect 3-0 win-loss record in Pool B but UST head coach Kungfu Reyes knows that the stakes are high when they take on the Lady Pirates in their scheduled 5:30 p.m. encounter in the tournament being aired live via Plus Network on Facebook, YouTube, and TikTok.
UST is coming off a 25-13, 25-19, 25-15, demolition of winless Emilio Aguinaldo College last week.
LPU, on the other hand, is looking to bounce back from a 15-25, 22-25, 16-25, defeat at the hands of Adamson University that dotted a blemish into its erstwhile undefeated slate.
Meanwhile, Adamson shoots for the other second round seat in Pool B against the Lady Generals in their 3 p.m. match.
Second round-bound University of the Philippines hopes to complete a sweep of Pool A when it takes on also-ran Mapua at 10 a.m. while Pool D squads College of St. Benilde and Letran clash at 12:30 p.m.
The Fighting Maroons, who joined University of Perpetual Help into the next round, parade a 3-0 card while the Lady Cardinals carry a 1-2 mark.
Both the reigning NCAA champions Lady Blazers and Lady Knights dropped their first two starts.
Secured of berths to the second round are Pool C teams National University and Ateneo de Manila University and Pool D squads De La Salle University and Far Eastern University.
In the second round, the top two teams in Pool A and C will compose Pool E while the qualifiers from Pool B and D will be bracketed in Pool F where they will play round robin against teams they have not faced in the first round to determine their rankings in the knockout quarterfinals.
The teams who did not qualify for the second phase of pool play are relegated to the classification round.
