NU zooms to solo lead

The Lady Bulldogs celebrate after taking the early tournament lead. —AUGUST DELA CRUZ

National University arrested a late-game meltdown to take down Ateneo, 25-19, 25-19, 20-25, 12-25, 15-7, and grab the early solo lead in the UAAP Season 80 women’s volleyball tournament on Wednesday at Filoil Flying V Centre.

After letting the Lady Eagles swoop down on them in the third and fourth sets, the Lady Bulldogs reestablished their dominance in the deciding fifth behind Jaja Santiago and Jasmine Nabor.

Santiago asserted her dominance over Ateneo with a game-high 26 points, while Nabor—who had 11 points and 29 excellent sets—knocked the Lady Eagles out cold by scoring three straight service aces, the last landing square in the middle of Ateneo’s defense that sealed the win.

The Lady Bulldogs remained unbeaten in two games as the Lady Eagles slipped to 0-2, their worst start since opening Season 73 with a 1-1 card.

NU looked utterly dominant in the first two sets despite wobbling midway through the second, but coach Babes Castillo said they had a momentary lapse in communication that allowed Ateneo to force a fifth set.

“Jasmine had a hard time communicating with her teammates when she was giving out instructions,” Castillo told reporters. “But they quickly fixed it.”

Earlier, University of Santo Tomas picked up its first win after handling University of the East with ease for a 25-17, 25-15, 25-21 decision.

Cherry Rondina dropped 20 points and Dimdim Pacres added eight points for the Tigresses, who rebounded from their opening-day loss to defending champion La Salle.

“This was a good bounce back win for us after coming from that five-set loss, said UST coach Kung Fu Reyes in Filipino.

“We just have to be consistent because in the first two sets we really performed well, but when we got to the third set we kind of relaxed.”

UST was on the offensive throughout the game and scored on 40 spikes, 13 more than what UE was able to muster, while also enjoying 26 free points due to the Lady Warriors’ errors.

UST is coming off a five-set loss to La Salle on opening day, unable to match the composure of the defending champions.