NU recovers, beats Adamson in season opener

National University brushed off an earlier mistake and fended off Adamson University in four sets, 25-15, 25-23, 16-25, 25-13, in the opening game of the UAAP Season 80 women’s volleyball tournament Saturday at Mall of Asia Arena.

The Lady Bulldogs momentarily lost track of its goal and stumbled in the third set, but the ladies in navy-and-gold ultimately recovered in the fourth frame.

Jaja Santiago gave NU a 14-6 lead in the fourth set as the Lady Bulldogs’ cruised to victory from that point on.

“The first game is always exciting and I told my team to always remember to enjoy themselves because they also worked really hard for this,” said NU head coach Babes Castillo in Filipino.

“I think what happened in the third set was they seemed to lack the energy and their movements slowed down. That’s our struggle for now but we’ll of course look into it.”

Setter Jasmine Nabor then, made a crucial block on Adamson’s Chiara Permentilla to put NU at the 24-13 match point.

Santiago topped all scorers with 16 points while Aiko Urdas and Audrey Paran had nine points apiece.

Permentilla had 12 points to lead the Lady Falcons while the returning Mylene Paat added 11.

Although the two teams didn’t show that much disparity in their offensive games, Adamson held a 39-37 advantage in spikes, it was in the defensive aspect that NU differentiated itself with the Lady Bulldogs gaining a 12-6 difference in blocks.

The Lady Bulldogs also enjoyed 35 free points due to the Lady Falcons’ errors.