The University of St. La Salle-Integrated School starts its quest for a national crown with a two-game schedule today as the Shakey's Tournament of Champions take off at the USLS College Covered Court in Bacolod City.

The La Salle-IS volleybelles open their bid against Cebu champion University of Southern Philippines Foundation at 10:30 a.m., before battling Iloilo winner Central Philippine University four and a half hours later.

Hope Christian School and USPF will play in the 4:30 p.m. match.

"The team will do its best to win," La Salle coach Malot Lozada, whose squad can claim a championship berth by sweeping their two games today, said. With a relatively young team in tow, Lozada also hopes she could draw consistent contributions from seniors Kaye Zaldarriaga and Gianes Dolar, whose stellar performances helped La Salle clinch the provincial crown at the expense of Doña Hortensia Salas Benedicto National High School Sunday.

La Salle's depth in attack could spell the difference with sophomore Dancel Jan Dusaran, Bea Tan and Fritz Joy Gallenero needing to rise to the occasion to help out the towering duo of Zaldarriaga and Dolar.

HCS coach Jerry Yee picked La Salle and CPU as the primary threat to Manila's dominance of this tournament that drew a total of 43 teams in four provincial elimination tournaments. "Bacolod is the volleyball capital in the Philippines," he said.

"I can't say we're the favorites. We're just happy to be here and play against the best teams in the country," said Yee, who steered Hope to the titles in the Filipino-Chinese Amateur Athletic Federation, Metropolitan Schools Association and F.C. Turibio Cup last year.

Yee has Palarong Pambansa veterans Jamanea Ferrer, Beverly Chan, Carmela Garbin, Juliet So and Melissa Gohing in his line-up. The five players stood at the forefront of NCR's silver medal finish in the Koronadal Palaro last April.

Garbin is the MVP of the Manila eliminations, while So was named top universal player. The best setter and blockers are Tan and Chan, respectively.

Hope walloped University of Sto. Tomas twice, including in the title match, and ousted defending national champion University of the East en route to the national finals.

Some of La Salle's players actually have a score to settle with Hope's Palaro players, who relegated them to third place in the national meet. *CPT

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