UAAP volleyball: DLSU romps over UST, wins no. 11

The FilOil Flying V Arena in San Juan was divided into a sea of green and yellow. In the end, only the green faction stayed for the final minutes.

 

Rookie Ara Galang’s gutsy play powered the DLSU Lady Spikers into a rout of the third-seeded UST Tigresses, who now find themselves pitted against the Adamson Lady Falcons for the fourth seed, Sunday, in the 74th UAAP women’s volleyball tournament.

 

Both teams opened the first set with service errors, with Lady Tiger Maruja Banaticla and Lady Spiker Mica Esperenza botching their teams’ first possessions. UST lead early 4-2, with aggressive play from Maika Ortiz, until a point by DLSU Team Captain Cha Cruz tied things at 4-4. 

 

DLSU’s rookies Galang and Mika Reyes made stellar performances on both ends, but both also kept on making service errors, which allowed UST to catch up. 

 

After Banaticla tied it at 14-14, errors on UST’s end separated them from a safe playing distance, and Abigail Marano powered a spike that gave them a five-point cushion at 23-18. A dig by Marano and a spike from Cruz then gave La Salle the set at 25-20.

 

UST continued to struggle early in the second, with Midori Hirotsuji struggling to find offensive rhythm while DLSU’s defense steered the pace. 

 

Teams traded service errors for another, as Marano and Banaticla found their points nullified by their own service mishaps. Ortiz and Judy Caballejo managed to chip in points for UST, but the multifarious DLSU offense found options in Cruz, Galang and Gumabao. 

 

Errors piled up for UST and frustration mounted for Lady Tigresses, as evidenced by an Ortiz spike that went too far from the playing court.  Their defense crumbled, and Marano closed out the set at 25-22.

 

Opening the third set, DLSU zinged the UST defense with an 8-1 run, two of which were from UST’s errors. Banaticla continued to fumble on defensive possessions and Hirotsuji still struggled to apply proper force to the volleyball. 

 

The set also saw one of the longest possessions played this season, with teams swinging and whacking the ball right into each other’s defenses, until Mela Tunay fell flat on her feet, giving a point to DLSU. 

 

A wily play by Galang sent Tunay and Caballejo sprawling on the floor while giving DLSU an eight-point lead at 14-6. UST crept close at 15-10 but spiking errors continued to mar UST, allowing Gumabao to shine and close out the set at 25-13.

 

SET SCORES: 25-20, 25-22, 25-13

 

— AD/RSJ, GMA News