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Now that’s what you call improving.

The Lady Spikers shut out UST in straight sets, 25-20, 25-22 25-13 as they continue on their mission to retain the womens volleyball championship. In today’s game, they effectively shut down UST’s offense with great net blocking and outstanding floor coverage. The Lady Spikers took the best UST could dish out in the first 2 sets, before completely dominating last year’s runner up team in the 3rd set. So effective was the blocking that UST could not get any consistent scoring from its main guns Banaticla, Ortiz, and Caballejo, who were all closely marked and consistently blocked whenever they would try to power their spikes into the DLSU side. UST resorted to a high risk tactic – powering their serves in an attempt to get quick points, but the move also gifted our team with some free points when the serves misfired.

The Lady Spikers allowed UST to take early leads in the first and second sets, then pulled ahead by the second technical timeout in both sets to win with a bit to spare. At no time was UST able to threaten to take any set, as our team clamped down on defense, muzzling any attempt by UST to gain momentum. In the 3rd set, the Lady Spikers then turned on the gas at the start, taking an early lead to get to 8, then building a double digit lead which was never threatened. The demoralized UST team just collapsed after that, scoring just 13 points.

Our offense was on track, with Esperanza effectively varying her sets to keep the attacks coming from different players, and UST could not keep tabs on all of them. Cha Cruz was steady, scored when needed, and had some great digs. Marano and Gumabao were very effective in their blocks, and contributed on offense as well. Galang (player of the game) and Reyes were also instrumental with their 2-way games. One area which could do with a bit more work is the serve. In the first and second sets, the team gave away at least 10 points on errant serves, perhaps due to jitters, but they steadied themselves from the middle of the second set onward.

The team appears to have taken Coach Ramil’s challenge at the end of the first round to heart – prepare for teams that gave them a hard time in the first round. So far, so good. No team has taken a set in the second round; the 2 teams that really threatened in 5 sets, FEU and UST, succumbed meekly in straight sets. Adamson failed to repeat its 1st round feat of taking a set.

At 11 wins, there are only UP, NU, and ADMU. Of the 3, only ADMU was successful in taking a set. Let’s see how they fare on Feb 12.

La Salle extends its winning run to 10 in women’s volleyball following a 25-22, 25-18, 25-18 win over UE today. Michele Gumabao led all scorers with 11 points followed by Cha Cruz with 9.

The Lady Spikers played just hard enough to win against UE today. They were not particularly sharp, and even allowed UE to take the lead, but bore down towards the end of each of the 3 sets to take the win comfortably. The team takes an 8-day break before taking on a UST team, which stretched the Lady Spikers to 5 sets before the Lady Spikers again pulled through late in the game.

Let’s hope that the Lady Spikers maintain their edge and focus over this long break. UST is starting to peak and will be dangerous; they handed Ateneo their 2nd loss last week. Coach Ramil has stated that he wants the Lady Spikers to prepare against the teams that gave them a hard time in the first round. In their 2nd round match, the Lady Spikers easily handled ADU which had taken a set in the first round. FEU, which stretched the Lady Spikers to a nerve-wracking 5 sets in their first matchup, also failed to get a set in their game last Wednesday. Of course, FEU was without Morada, who was instrumental in helping FEU compete on even terms in the 3rd and 4th sets. Those 2 comfortable wins over playoff contenders ADU and FEU are good indicators of the ability of the Lady Spikers to learn from their earlier matches.

Our team is starting to peak, there is a noticeable improvement in performance of individual players as well as in the teamwork on the floor. Our players feature prominently in almost all important statistics, although no one is dominating the numbers because the load is being shared across the team. That in itself is an indication of the multi-faceted capabilities of the team on both offense and defense. But it’s probably in the mental toughness that our team has shown significant improvement, in their ability to withstand the best that the opponents have been able to dish out, take control of the match, and out-steady the opponents with the game on the line. The girls don’t buckle under pressure,  that should be bad news for the other title pretenders.

The Lady Spikers formalize their entry in the UAAP Volleyball Final Four as they romped to an effortless win over FEU today 25-10, 25-18, 25-20.

The result was a far cry from their first round encounter where it went five sets.

Rookie Ara Galang led the Lady Spikers with 14 points followed by Cha Cruz with 13.

La Salle remains undefeated in the tournament at 9-0. They go for win number 10 this Saturday against UE.

The Lady Spikers had it quite easy this time.

Led by Captain Cha Cruz’s 18 points, La Salle defeated Adamson 25-20, 25-18, 25-22 yesterday to start the second round of the UAAP women’s volleyball tournament.

The team cruised through the first two sets but they had to climb from a 6-point deficit towards the end of the third set to close out the game. Though they committed 23 errors in this match, this is already a big improvement from the 44 they had against UST last week.

Next opponent will be FEU this coming Wednesday. La Salle escaped with a 5-set thriller against this team in the first round. The Lady Tams are currently at third after defeating NU in the other match yesterday.

The Lady Spikers are not ready to lose just yet.

Behind team captain Cha Cruz, De La Salle overcame a determined challenge by the UST Tigresses to escape with a come-from-behind 5-set victory today 20-25, 25-22, 16-25, 25-19, 17-15.

With the win, the Lady Spikers finish the first round of eliminations undefeated at 7-0. They also extend their mastery over the Tigresses since losing to them in the finals two years ago.

Cruz finished the game with 17 points, 16 attacks and 1 service ace while Abigail Marano added 18 points and 5 blocks. Both players were instrumental in the team’s comeback trail in the deciding set wherein they erased a 6-point deficit to clinch the win.

In a rematch of last year’s finals, both squads fought tooth and nail throughout the match. The Tigresses appeared to have things in control after taking a 2-1 set and with the momentum clearly in their favor. But the Lady Spikers simply refused to give up as they mounted a furious finish in the 4th set.

However, with fatigue setting in, they started flat in the final set as UST erected an early 7-1 lead. Luckily, the team showed tremendous resolve down the stretch to tie the count at 13-all.

With the score still tied at 15, UST committed a costly error paving the way for La Salle to seal the game.

The game would probably not have been this close if not for the 44 errors committed by the Lady Spikers.  This is one area that needs to be addressed come the second round.

The team showed a lot of heart today. They have been in this situation so many times. Even when they are pushed to the brink, they always seem to find a way to win.