UAAP: Lady Maroons stay alive after surviving Tigresses in 5-set thriller

The University of the Philippines may yet get a final four berth after surviving a gruelling five-setter against the University of Santo Tomas, 11-25, 25-20, 16-25, 25-17, 15-11, in the UAAP Women's Volleyball Tournament at the San Juan Arena on Saturday.

 

The victory improved the Lady Maroons' card to 5-7, placing them in the fifth spot while the Tigresses fell to sixth with a 5-8 record.

 

UP fought their way into the fourth set to force the decider, feeding off UST's mistakes and leaning on veteran spiker Angeli Araneta's strong presence at the end for the strong finish.

 

The Tigresses continued to lapse into service errors in the fifth, allowing UP to get an early 6-3 advantage. Lady Luck then smiled on the Maroons as Nicole Tiamzon's back row attack hit the net but bounced to the UST side and dropped on the court to get a 10-6 edge.

 

The España squad trimmed the lead to 11-10 behind attacks from Chloe Cortez and Marivic Meneses. But UP serve specialist Hannah Mangulabnan scored back-to-back aces to give the Katipunan squad matchpoint, 14-10.

 

UST breathed a sigh of relief as they remained alive after a UP miscue, but crowd darling Tiamzon ended the match with a cross court hit to the empty right corner. — Marisse Panaligan/JDS, GMA News