La Salle, Ateneo sustain pursuit of leaders

Fifi Sharma (right) topscores for La Salle. —UAAP MEDIA

De La Salle and Ateneo de Manila racked up contrasting victories on Tuesday and sustained their respective climbs in the standings of Season 84 of the UAAP women’s volleyball tournament.

The Lady Spikers, with their 1-2 punch of Alleiah Malaluan and Justine Jazareno leading the way, routed University of the Philippines (UP), 25-12, 25-17, 25-19, while the Lady Eagles recovered from a second set stumble to post a 25-14, 20-25, 25-11, 25-14 win over University of the East (UE) at Mall of Asia Arena.

Malaluan drilled a game-high 16 points to go along with five receptions for La Salle, which drew a great defensive outing from Jazareno, who finished with 12 excellent digs and 11 excellent receptions as the Lady Spikers rose to 4-2.

National continues to lead the field with a 6-0 record and finishing in the top two is very important.

“UP started strong and good that we prepared hard for them,” said La Salle assistant coach Benson Bocboc after the Lady Spikers doomed the Lady Maroons to their third loss in six games.

The Lady Eagles, meanwhile, won a third straight game and improved to a level 3-3 after Faith Nisperos tallied 19 points built on 15 attacks and Vanie Gandler backed her up with 16 points on 12 attacks, three aces.

“We’re not counting the streak. We just want to be better every game, and this game is not different from the other games we had to prepare for,” said Ateneo coach Oliver Almadro. “We know for a fact that (UE) will fight it out, like what happened in the second set.”

Carrying the momentum of a smashing third set win, Ateneo entered the second technical timeout of the fourth frame with a seven-point advantage before erecting a 23-11 lead that proved too big a deficit for the Lady Warriors to overcome.

UE lost for the sixth straight game.

The Lady Red Warriors suffered a huge blow with Ja Lana getting injured in the fourth frame after a bad fall going for a block. INQ