Even without its veteran guest players, University of Santo Tomas remains a formidable force in the second conference of the 6th Shakey’s V-League that opens shop on Sunday at The Arena in San Juan City.

The Tigresses, who own the most number of titles with four – including the last conference – will be without old reliables in last conference’s MVP Mary Jane Balse and Michelle Carolino who will play for the RP team in the coming Southeast Asian Games in Laos.

In a related development, the Philippine Volleyball Federation has disallowed members of the national team to play in any league until after the biennial games, thus forcing the V-League to allow each team to tap only one guest player instead of the usual two.

Still, league commissioner Tony Liao picks the Tigresses as the team to beat in the league sponsored by Shakey’s Pizza and Sports Vision.

“Despite the loss of Balse and Carolino, I think UST is still a strong team since they will be backstopped by an equally talented guest player and strong front line,” said Liao, appearing alongside Vic Gregorio of Shakey’s and Moying Martelino of Sports Vision in Tuesday’s PSA Forum at Shakey’s UN Ave.

The hard-hitting Roxanne Pimentel, a former league MVP who steered UST to its second title in 2004 when she was still a mainstay, will be the Tigresses’ new guest spiker. She will be backstopped by Aiza Maizo, Judy Caballejo, Maika Ortiz, Rhea Dimaculangan, and Angeli Tabaquero.

UST kicks its “drive for five” against Adamson at 2 p.m. on Sunday which will be followed by the 4 p.m. duel between Far Eastern University and University of the Philippines.

The other competing teams are Ateneo, Lyceum, and College of St. Benilde.