UAAP: UP women earn first volleyball win of the season, inflict 23rd straight loss on UE

The UP Lady Maroons sailed to their first victory of the season against the winless UE Lady Warriors in three sets, 25-8, 25-18 and 25-16, on Saturday at the FilOil Flying V Arena in San Juan.

The Lady Maroons improved to 1-6 for the season, while UE skidded to 0-6, having lost 23 straight matches.

The first set kicked off with the Lady Maroons exploding to an 8-3 start. With the Lady Warriors startled by their numerous unforced errors, Sheeka Espinosa’s squad took advantage of their early momentum. UP quickly piled up a 16-5 lead care of Julienne Calugcug’s relentless front-row attacks.

With Katherine Bersola’s blocking paving the way for UP’s defense, the Lady Maroons captured the set at 25-8, as Hannah Mangulabanan’s service ace at set point nailed the UE Lady Warriors to a single-digit scoring output in the first set.

UP maintained the intensity of their play, as the same story was told in the second set. Angeli Araneta and Calugcug were too much for the UE defense as their attacks opened up a 16-9 advantage in the set. In addition, the Lady Warriors struggled to get through the UP blockers as errors continued to pile up for the girls in red. The Katipunan-based squad on the other hand managed to reach set point at 24-15, but UE failed to back down by scoring three straight points to inch in closer. However, the lead was too much for the Lady Warriors to handle, as UP maintained their composure to finish the set at 25-18.

The third set was a much better start for the Lady Warriors, as they took a quick 3-1 lead. But the duo of Bersola and Calugcug remained consistent on the offensive end as they easily flipped the momentum of the set. UP finished things off handily, and grabbed their first win of the season at 25-16.

The trio of Araneta, Calugcug and Bersola tallied 11 points each to lead the well-balanced attack of UP over UE. Despite Abegail Ponon’s 20 excellent sets, the Lady Warriors struggled too much on their errors as UP benefited with 26 points.

UE’s leading scorer of the match, Shaya Adorador only managed to tally a single-digit scoring output at 9. - AMD, GMA News