Colegio de San Juan de Letran made sure it ends today, pulling off a masterful 30-28, 25-12, 25-21 win against Arellano University to enter the finals of NCAA Season 100 women’s volleyball on Tuesday at the FilOil EcoOil Centre.
The win sent the Lady Knights to their second-straight finals appearance, arranging a championship showdown with three-time defending champion De La Salle-College of Saint Benilde.
Plenty of heroes emerged for Letran with Judiel Nitura leading the charge with a team-high 17 points on 15 attacks and two blocks while rookie Vanessa Sarie supplied the help with 15 markers as the Lady Knights set up a finals duel again with the same team that swept them in last year's finals.
Gia Maquilang chipped in 13 points laced with seven digs and 16 receptions.
"We didn't expect na masi-sweep namin 'yung Arellano so ang mindset namin is to play hard from the start kasi alam namin na Arellano is not an easy team," Letran head coach Oliver Almadro said.
"Good thing that my players are prepared and they showed a strong character today."
[We didn't expect to sweep Arellano so our mindset is to play hard from the start because we know Arellano is not an easy team... Good thing my players are prepared and they showed strong character today.]
Arellano has been a tough opponent for Letran this season after the Lady Chiefs handed the Lady Knights their first loss of the season during their first-round meeting. Arellano also dragged Letran to a grueling five-set match in the second round with the Lady Knights gutting out a hard-fought win behind Sarie's 37-point outing.
Letran learned its lessons the hard way — and it paid off with a finals ticket at stake this time around.
But a slow start ensued for Letran with Arellano tying things up at 28-all in the tight first set. Maquilang then powered through in the open before Nitura punished the Lady Chiefs from the opposite side for a 30-28 victory.
Nitura and Sarie took care of business in the lopsided Set 2 win with the former unleashing back-to-back points on a rejection and an attack to clinch the set point, 24-12. A Moming Padillon attack error saw Letran taking a two-to-none advantage.
But Arellano got its act together in the third with Padillion making up for that previous error to bring the Lady Chiefs to a 16-13 lead.
Letran, though, regrouped and mounted a 5-0 rampage following two consecutive attack errors from Sam Tiratira that saw the Lady Knights regaining an 18-16 cushion.
Another series of infractions from the Arellano side allowed Letran to complete the sweep with Catherine Domasig committing a setting error and Laika Tudlasan going wide on her down-the-line attack.
—JMB, GMA Integrated News
