The two-time defending champions De La Salle University Lady Spikers avenged their first round loss against the National University Lady Bulldogs with a straight set win, 27-25, 27-25, 25-16 in UAAP Women’s Volleyball, for share of top seed, Saturday, at FilOil Flying-V Arena in San Juan City.
Both teams inarguably got the skills, but it was the experience of the Taft-based squad that prevailed, displaying the famous ‘tatak La Salle’ particularly in coming back from a huge deficit in the first two sets, before dominating the Lady Bulldogs in the third.
With Risa Sato doing much of the damage, NU established a 21-14 lead in the first set, but La Salle answered back with a stunning 10-2 run and tied the game at 23-all. The Lady Spikers and Lady Bulldogs exchanged errors to force another deadlock, ended by a strong hit by Aiko Urdas to reach their second set point. However, NU wasted the opportunity and committed three crucial errors to succumb the set to La Salle.
The same story occurred in the second set where the Lady Spikers chased and erased the 17-10 lead of NU. The Lady Bulldogs responded and built another two-point lead and reached set point, but NU was once again haunted by their own errors, tallying two consecutive mistakes to give La Salle the lead. Jasmine Nabor kept them alive but Desiree Cheng came up with two clutch cross-court hits to seal another come-from-behind win by the Lady Spikers.
It was all La Salle in the third set, dominating the struggling NU squad en route to their seventh win on the season. The three MVPs of La Salle stepped up with Kim Kianna Dy having 14 points, Desiree Cheng with 13, and Majoy Baron with 11.
Jaja Santiago was held down to 13 points, her same output when NU lost to FEU in the first round.
Player of the Game: Desiree Cheng, 13 points (10 points, 1 block, 1 service aces)
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