Maureen Penetrante and Desiree Hernandez stood at the vanguard of La Salle’s unrelenting attack, combining for 24 hits, including 18 on kills as the Lady Archers rolled to their third straight victory in this tournament put up by Shakey’s Pizza.

That despite Michelle Carolino’s mediocre performance as the 2004 second conference MVP struggled with only five points.

"Medyo naga-adjust pa kami ng kaunti, hindi pa kasi kami nakaka-practice masyado as a team dahil ang iba sa amin nasa national team," said La Salle coach Ramil de Jesus, also the mentor of the RP women’s squad, which includes Carolino and Penetrante, seeing action in the 23rd Southeast Asian Games slated Nov. 27-Dec. 5 here.

The Lady Pirates took their third straight setback, their losing stand hastened by the absence of top hitter Angelica Bigcas and libero Shella Marga.

Bigcas, the best scorer in the first conference last year before the league decided to add reinforcements, re-injured her right shoulder in a straight loss to defending champion University of Santo Tomas Thursday at the Lyceum Gym while Marga was indisposed.

Charissa Fe Genido tried to fill in the void by unleashing 10 kills but her efforts failed to rub in on her teammates as the Intramuros-based spikers fell to the bottom of the standing with three straight losses.

The triumph also prepared La Salle against vastly-improved San Sebastian, the only other unbeaten team remaining in this event backed by Accel, Mikasa, IBC 13 and Jemah Television with a pair of wins including a four-setter against UST on opening day last week.

"Lumakas sila (San Sebastian) at medyo bumilis din, nagkaroon kasi sila ng setter," said De Jesus referring to former FEU standout Cecil Chavaz.