St. Benilde Lady Blazers vs Lyceum Lady Pirates. Photo by Tristan Tamayo/INQUIRER.net
College of St. Benilde showed its composure and came back from two sets down to deny Lyceum its first victory in the NCAA Season 93 women’s volleyball tournament, 22-25, 23-25, 25-14, 25-13, 25-10, Thursday at Filoil Flying V Centre.
The Lady Blazers tied Arellano University atop the standings with a 2-0 card while the Lady Pirates are at 0-2.
After starting off the fifth set with a 4-1 lead, St. Benilde allowed the Lady Pirates to take the edge but Ranya Musa was there to spark the finishing kick.
She scored on back-to-back hits to give the Lady Blazers a 6-4 lead before Lyceum committed three straight errors to virtually hand St. Bendile the match.
The key to the turnaround was settling down in the third set, which allowed the Lady Blazers to play at their pace
“I tried to calm them down, and I also had to adjust to them because when I called a timeout in the first set I talked to them in a high tone so when I called them again in the second set I toned down a little bit,” said Arnold Laniog.
“In the third set we slowly got into our game, then when I saw that we were taking the lead and our movements were smoother I knew the game would be ours.”
Klarisa Abriam led Benilde with 18 points while Rachel Austero added 16 points.
Marites Pablo and Musa also finished in double figures with 12 and 11 points, respectively.
Bien Juanillo had 14 points to lead Lyceum with Monica Sevilla adding 11.