Manila titlist Hope Christian School pulled the plug on the title bid of University of St. La Salle-Integrated School last night with a methodical straight sets victory that completed an elimination-round sweep of the Shakey's Girls' Volleyball Tournament of Champions in Bacolod City.

The 18-25, 15-25, 20-25 defeat relegated the La Salle volleybelles to a third place showdown with winless Central Philippine University at 9 a.m. today.

Hope, on the other hand, moved to a title duel with University of Southern Philippines Foundation, after the CPU-USLS duel.

With USPF winning against CPU, 25-23, 25-22, 25-19, earlier, La Salle needed to win big against the Manila champions to boost its hopes to reach the final based on the quotient system.

But the La Sallians groped for form in the first two sets and momentarily found their rhythm in the third frame, where they kept knocking at the door, the last time at 19-21, only to wilt in the end.

Dancel Jan Dusaran and Fritz Joy Gallenero tried to get the La Sallians back into the match but their stellar play failed to rub off on the rest of the team and barely scuttled a cohesive HCS squad.

Setter Jamanea Ferrer sneaked in points off digs while no one was looking, typifying the sharpness of Hope's game and exposing La Salle's lethargic performance.

Hope struck heavily on Ferrer's service game. On her serve, Hope broke away from a tight opening set early, 8-4. She later joined hands with teammates Carmela Garbin and Beverly Chan to turn a 17-16 cushion to a 23-17 lead that all but wrapped up the set.

The second set was not any different with USLS lapsing into a spate of errors, while Hope scored on calculated attacks. Ferrer wrapped up the match in 59 minutes with a service ace. The Hope spikers, who ousted defending champion University of the East in the Manila eliminations, will go into the showdown buoyed by its five-set conquest of USPF late Thursday when they came out 24-26, 20-25, 25-22, 25-22, 15-9 winners.

Their victory against USPF was followed up by a 25-17, 25-11, 27-25 drubbing of Iloilo-based Central Philippine University early yesterday.

Garbin and Ferrer caused all sorts of problems to Iloilo, teaming up for 22 points on 14 kills, one block and seven service aces. Chan was also impressive with eight points, seven of them on kills.

The USPF volleybelles sent CPU crashing to its third straight defeat, 25-23, 25-22, 25-19, to clinch the second finals berth. They also prevailed over La Salle, 23-25, 25-20, 25-29, 29-27, in their opening-match. *CPT

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