De La Salle-College of Saint Benilde had to withstand a gallant second set against Arellano University before carving out a 25-18, 31-29, 25-16 win in the NCAA Season 100 women's volleyball on Tuesday at the FilOil EcoOil Centre.
The three-time defending champions shrugged off some strong resistance from the Lady Chiefs to cruise to their fourth straight victory and improve to 11-2 while Arellano slipped to 9-5
Middle blocker Zam Nolasco continued to impress for the Lady Blazers by dropping a team-high 15 points while Shahanna Lleses and team captain Mycah Go provided the help with 14 and 13 markers.
Lleses also proved her worth in other departments after grabbing 12 digs and 11 receptions for a triple-double outing that allowed the Lady Blazers to inch closer to a Final Four ticket.
"'Yung second set nakuha pa rin namin so tumaas 'yung kumpiyansa ng mga bata so lumabas na 'yung laro nila. Ni-remind lang din namin sila na 'yung blocking nila ayusin nila," Benilde head coach Onyok Getigan told GMA News Online.
"Buti nagtuloy-tuloy na 'yung laro nila at hindi na naulit 'yung sa second set na dumikit [at] humabol pa 'yung kalaban."
[The second set, we were able to win it so the confidence of the players went up and their real games came out. We also just reminded them about their blocking, to do it well... It's good that they continue to play at a high level and there was no repeat of what happened in the second set where the opponent was able to stay close and catch up.]
Arellano, which was coming off a string of three victories against Mapua University, San Beda University, and Jose Rizal University, showed its fighting spirit in the second set with Laika Tudlasan forcing a 29-all deadlock off an opposite kill.
But Go sent Benilde to the match point before an attack error from Pauline De Guzman saw the Lady Blazers taking a 2-0 set advantage.
Benilde made sure the same thing won't happen in the third set with Go swiping the ball to bring them to the match point at 24-15 before a Tudlasan service error had Benilde completing the sweep victory.
Tudlasan emerged as the top scorer with 12 points as Moming Padillon was limited to just seven markers.
—JMB, GMA Integrated News
