FILE – La Salle Lady Spikers. Photo by Tristan Tamayo/INQUIRER.net
Defending champion De La Salle avenged its first round loss and wore down National University, 27-25, 27-25, 25-16 in the UAAP Season 80 women’s volleyball tournament Saturday at Filoil Flying V Centre.
The Lady Spikers dragged the Lady Bulldogs to a tie at the first place with identical 6-2 records.
Despite slugging it out in the first two sets, even coming back from a 17-10 deficit in the second, the Lady Spikers had an easier route in the third set.
Desiree Cheng was the first to give La Salle a large margin when she hit her spike off Risa Sato’s block for the Lady Spikers’ 12-6 lead.
Kianna Dy and Arriane Layug then exchanged hits to put La Salle up 22-13.
La Salle head coach Ramil De Jesus, who rarely praises his players, had to tip his hat off to his team for showing the resiliency in the first two sets and the dominance come the third.
“In the first two sets they looked sluggish but I slowly saw them relax a bit and in the third they finally let it loose,” said De Jesus in Filipino. “And this was the first time that we were up two sets and we were the aggressors in the third.”
“I’m happy with how they turned up in the third.”
Jaja Santiago’s ace managed to trim La Salle’s lead to six, 22-16, but Tin Tiamzon was quick to respond with an off-the-block kill for the Lady Spikers’ 23-16 lead.
Layug then finished off NU when her crosscourt kill bounced off Jasmine Nabor’s reception.
Dy had 14 points to lead all scorers while Cheng and reigning MVP Mary Joy Baron 13 and 11 points, respectively.
Santiago had 13 points to lead the Lady Bulldogs.
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