UAAP Volleyball: Valdez leads Lady Eagles to five-set victory over Lady Tams

The Ateneo Lady Eagles surivived the challenge of a determined FEU squad, pulling off a five-set victory, 25-19 25-22 6-25 25-27 15-9, on Saturday in the opening day of the UAAP Season 75 Women's Volleyball Tournament.

 

Alyssa Valdez paced the Eagles with 26 points, while Fille Cainglet added 12. FEU leaned on Rosemarie Vargas with 24 points, with Wenneth Eulalio chipping in 15.

 

The Lady Eagles found no problem taking the first set, 25-19, posting 14 attack points against FEU's seven.

 

The early part of the second set was a battle between Ateneo's Alyssa Valdez and FEU's Vargas. Midway, Vargas got help from Eulalio, giving the Lady Tams a 17-13 lead. But Valdez would go on to carry Ateneo, scoring three points to keep the Eagles within one. Tied at 22 after a Dzi Gervacio conversion, back to back blocks for FEU along with a block by Valdez settled the score for the Lady Eagles, 25-22.

 

The third was all FEU, as the Lady Tams posted block after block to bury Ateneo in a 15-1 hole. Gretchen Ho broke the silence for Ateneo, but the Lady Eagles could not recover as Eulalio and Gyzelle Sy ended the set, 25-6.

 

After tying the fourth set at 3-all, the Lady Eagles struggled with their reception, giving Eulalio and the rest of the Tams the chance to errect a 9-5 lead. Valdez would again resurrect the Eagles with three straight points to tie the game at 11-all. With Fille Cainglet and Gervacio joining the Ateneo scoring party, the Lady Eagles were able to erect a 16-13 lead, before Eulalio got help from Remy Palma and Vergas to knot it up at 18-all.

 

FEU responded to Valdez' timely hits with Vargas' own. After a Palma block on Valdez to tie the game at 22-all, Vargas buried one into the middle of the Ateneo floor for the lead, 23-22. A Valdez hit and an ace put Ateneo up one, 25-24, before De Jesus' attempt sailed long to tie the game yet again. An Ateneo reception error gave the Lady Tams a 26-25 lead, before Sy went for a surprise toss yet again to send the game to its deciding set, 27-25.

 

A Gervacio ace followed by a Valdez conversion put Ateneo ahead 4-2. Back to back hits by Margarita Tejada, followed by more aces from the Lady Eagles put the Katipunan-based squad up 11-6, before Vargas got some help from the net for an 11-7 spread.

 

Play was momentarily postponed after, as the game officials could not determine if an Ateneo player touched a Vargas hit even after multiple angles of instant replay. The Lady Eagles went on score one more, before Vargas chalked another one up off an Ateneo block, 12-8.

 

A Christine Agno hail mary recovery sustained a long rally for FEU before a Vargas block made it 12-9. Costly errors by Vargas gave Ateneo match point at 14-9, before Gervacio finished it off for the Lady Eagles, 15-9.