La Salle survives FEU

De La Salle Lady Spikers. Photo by Tristan Tamayo/INQUIRER.net

La Salle went through a roller-coaster ride before holding off a gritty Far Eastern University in five sets, 25-14, 25-9, 22-25, 19-25, 15-7, at the start of the second round of the UAAP women’s volleyball tournament Saturday at Filoil Flying V Arena.

Regaining their fierce form in the first two sets, the Lady Spikers seemed to have set aside an emotionally-charged week where they demolished defending champion Ateneo then absorbed a shock loss to University of Santo Tomas.

But the Lady Spikers surprisingly lost their focus as the Lady Tamaraws came back to forge a fifth set.

“We were dominated in attacks in the third and fourth sets,” said La Salle coach Ramil de Jesus. “The momentum shifted.”

But the Lady Spikers managed to arrest that to keep solo second at 6-2 in the match that saw their energy rise and fall—and rise again—behind Ara Galang, Cyd Demecillo and Carol Cerveza.

UST sustained its steady rise from a 0-3 start with a 25-17, 25-23, 25-16 sweep of winless University of the East.

EJ Laure tossed in 15 points, including key hits that helped close out the second set where the Lady Warriors came out fighting and even led at 14-9.

First-round top scorer Cherry Rondina added 12 markers for the Tigresses, who climbed to 4-4 for a share of the fourth spot with the Lady Tamaraws.