Several players are chasing a second Illawarra championship this season heading into this Saturday's Zone 16 triples quarter-finals at Albion Park Bowling Club.

Brett Pieper clinched back-to-back Illawarra singles titles last month and has his Figtree RSL team in the triples quarter-finals.

Pieper and partners Mark Hennen and Harry Johnston take on the strong Dapto Citizens combination of Zoran Bosev (skip), John Hills and Ian Bailey (lead) for a spot in the semi-finals.

Pieper became the first player in almost 30 years to win back-to-back Illawarra singles titles and is chasing a second zone title in just a few weeks.

Warilla have three teams in the triples quarter-finals. Jeremy Henry (skip) and partners Jamie Mitchell and Wayne Crane (lead) are looking for a second zone title for 2014 after taking out the Illawarra Fours crown in February.

Henry faces Albion Park's Dean Aitken in the triples quarter-finals. The winner will meet either Pieper or Bosev in the semi-finals.

Warilla's Geoff McGillivray is coming off a victory on the Illawarra Senior Singles championship and with partners Erin Smith and Aaron Spears (lead) have also advanced to the triples quarter-finals.

Four rounds of triples were played at various clubs over the weekend of June 28-29 before the tournament took a break last weekend while the Illawarra representative team was involved in an inter-zone series in Newcastle.

Among a host of excellent matches in the early rounds of the Triples Championships was Towradgi Park's Mal Lyons skipping his team to a one-shot win over Kiama's Brad Rossiter in round three.

In round two, Lyons also had a tense one-shot win, 23-22, over Corrimal's Kyle Johannes, and Pieper beat Warilla skip Glen Beveridge and partners 23-22.

Meanwhile, the Dapto team skipped by Rod Taylor is also into the Illawarra triples quarter-finals and faces another Warilla combination skipped by Rob Tynan.

The quarter-finals are on Saturday afternoon.

While the semi-finals and final are back at tournament headquarters Albion Park on Sunday.

The triples champions will represent Illawarra Zone 16 in the state finals in October.