Lady Falcons claw Archers, wrest lead

First conference champion Adamson continued to sizzle as it brought down three-time winner La Salle with a 25-20, 25-18, 25-23 victory yesterday to wrest the lead in the Shakey’s V-League second conference at The Arena in San Juan City.

MVP Nerissa Bautista came through with another power game for Adamson, which also drew inspiration from a pair of rookies to stretch its win run to four after an opening day loss to surge ahead of the eight-team field in the league sponsored by Shakey’s Pizza.

“Nene (Bautista) has been playing inspired game,” said Adamson coach Dulce Pante. “We’re winning because we train very hard and it shows in our rookies.” 

The loss was La Salle’s second straight after sweeping its first four games, dropping the Lady Archers to second, their outright semis bid derailed for the second straight time.

Lyceum survived St. Benilde, 25-14, 25-18, 25-23, to notch its second straight win for solo sixth.

Bautista rammed in 22 hits, including 19 kills, while Angela Benting added 15 points for Adamson, which also drew a combined 10-point effort from Paulina Soriano, a product of Rondon High School-QC, and Angelica Quinlog of Antipolo.

Adamson, which swept Ateneo to claim the first conference crown in the league organized by Sports Vision, seized control early, racing to a 15-5 lead only to sputter in the face of Jacqueline Alarca-led La Salle’s fightback at 19-21.

But the Taft-based spikers failed to sustain their charge and Bautista combined with Benting to seal the first set win for Adamson.

The Lady Falcons controlled the second frame but the Lady Archers tried to stave off a sweep when they went ahead at 21-20 on Alarca’s back-to-back hits.

Benting, however, took over and presided Adamson’s counterttack, including a service ace, that netted four straight points for a 24-21 lead. But Manilla Santos came away with a kill and Charleen Cruz scored on a block as the Lady Archers closed to within one again.

But Bautista delivered her 19th spike through Alarca’s defense as Adamson took the set, the match and the solo lead.

Alarca wound up with 14 hits while Santos had nine points for La Salle.

For updates and results, visit the tournament website at www.v-league.ph. The league is backed by Active White skin whitening products, Mikasa and Accel.

Meanwhile, the La Salle-Adamson game will be telecast on NBN-4 starting at 2 p.m. today with replays on both Viva Prime Channel on Destiny Cable and Makisig Channel on Sky Cable.