MANILA, Philippines - Displaying the spunk missing the last time, top seed La Salle grounded upset-conscious finals rival Ateneo, 23-25, 25-21, 26-24, 25-18, to stand on the verge of a second straight UAAP women’s volleyball crown at a jampacked FilOil Flying V Arena yesterday.
Their previously unblemished mark stained by Ateneo’s 23-25, 28-26, 25-23, 25-17 reversal at the start of the finals last week,the DLSU Lady Spikers came back a lot fiercer, setting up their attacks and blocking a lot better to hold off the Lady Eagles before a roaring crowd of 7,039.
“Medyo mabait the last time, nawala yung attitude sa loob. Di naman tinuturo sa kanila na maging wild, ang importante ma-boost ang morale ng teammates (We displayed the right attitude on the floor unlike last time when we were somewhat soft),” said DLSU coach Ramil de Jesus, whose charges will shoot for the crown on Wednesday.
“Maganda ang setting, maganda ang naging pagpasok nila (Carmela) Garbin at (Diemmy) Tatlonghari, medyo na-control yung setting, at naging maganda rin yung blocking (Carmela Garbin and Diemmy Tatlonghari gave us a lift in setting our attacks and our blocking was solid),” added de Jesus, whose wards got 12 points off blocks.
The rivals fought on even terms in the first two sets and the Lady Eagles appeared headed to annexing the third when they led, 23-21. But a service error by Aillysse Carol Nagachi swayed the momentum to DLSU’s side and the Taft-based spikers went on to score four of the last five points to steal the set, 26-24.
DLSU stormed to a 23-16 tear in the fourth, behind the efforts of Best Blocker Michelle Gumabao (18 points, including five off blocks) and Best Server Victonara Galang (12 points) to coast to the victory. Cha Cruz and Mika Reyes added 12 and 11 points, respectively, while MVP Abigail Marano struggled with seven for DLSU.
“Sinayang nila, pwede sana naming ipanalo. Na-rattle, nag-panic nung matalo nung third set. Lumabas talaga yung kawalan ng experience sa championship (We wasted the opportunity. We panicked after losing the third set and our championship inexperience showed),” said AdMU coach Roger Gorayeb, who drew 23 points from Alyssa Valdez and 13 from skipper Fille Cainglet.
In the men’s division, Far Eastern leaned on Best Scorer Rodolfo Labrador’s 23 markers and Arvin Avila’s 15 to beat four-time defending titlist Santo Tomas, 25-20, 25-21, 25-22 in Game 1 of their best-of-three title series.
No one among the Tigers finished in double figures with Romnick Rico tallying nine. MVP awardee Jayson Ramos was hardly a factor and wound up with only four.