By Ardyn Gonzales
The defending champions National University Lady Bulldogs stayed perfect as they swept the University of the Philippines Fighting Maroons, 25-13, 25-23, 25-22, in the UAAP Season 87 women’s volleyball tournament, Sunday at the Mall of Asia Arena in Pasay City.
After convincingly winning the first set, the Lady Bulldogs were challenged by the comeback attempts of the Fighting Maroons.
In the second set, UP was able to cut down the 24-20 lead of NU to within one through the combined efforts of Bienne Bansil and Kassy Doering. However, after committing a service ace, the Fighting Maroons committed an unfortunate error to surrender the lead to NU.
The defending champions once again faced a late-game run by UP as they saw their 22-16 lead erased for a 22-all deadlock. Alyssa Solomon stopped the bleeding to regain the lead, followed by a down the line attack by Celine Marsh to bring NU to match point.
A kill block on a UP attack secured NU’s fifth straight victory.
Bella Belen was the top scorer for NU with 17 points all on attacks, while Solomon was not far behind with 16 markers.
Doering led the Fighting Maroons with 11 points, supported by the 10 markers contributed by Kianne Olango.
NU will face Adamson for their next assignment before taking on the streaking UST for a rematch of last season’s finals.
Featured image courtesy of UAAP
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