By Ardyn Gonzales
The De La Salle University Lady Spikers clinched their first victory of the UAAP Season 87 women’s volleyball tournament after sweeping the Adamson University Lady Falcons, 25-21, 26-24, 25-20, Saturday at the FilOil EcoOil Centre in San Juan City.
Coming from a loss in their opening game, the tandem of Alleiah Malaluan and Angel Canino led La Salle to barge into the winning column to avert a rare back-to-back losses.
Malaluan was the top scorer for the Lady Spikers with 16 points on 13 attacks, two service aces, and a kill block. Meanwhile, Canino, who was limited to a single-digit output last game, bounced back and tallied 15 markers.
The Lady Spikers had a rough start with four consecutive errors which forced the coaching staff to call for an early timeout. They slowly got their rhythm to snatch the first set from the Lady Falcons, but La Salle almost lost the second frame when Adamson made a late run from 20-23 to 24-23.
However, miscues from the Lady Falcons gave the 2-0 advantage to La Salle.
From there, La Salle capitalized on the momentum and started the third with a 5-1 cushion and never looked back, despite giving away a total of 28 free points to Adamson all throughout the match.
Super rookie Shaina Nitura carried the Lady Falcons with 16 points while foreign student athlete Frances Mordi provided 12 markers to support their rookie-captain. Their middle blockers’ absence was apparent with Jen Villegas only scoring a single point and Eloi Dote remaining scoreless.
The Lady Spikers are now at 1-1 and will be tested anew by their last season’s tormentors UST. Tied with La Salle are the Lady Falcons who will face the UE squad for their next assignment.
Featured image courtesy of UAAP
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