All posts tagged De La Salle Lady Spikers

It’s been a while since La Salle last lost a game in the UAAP women’s volleyball. Sadly, it had to this one.

Behind a game-high 24 points from rookie Alyssa Valdez and 19 from Fille Cainglet, the Ateneo Lady Eagles pulled off a shocking upset win of the Lady Spikers 23-25, 28-26, 25-23, 25-17 in the opening match of the Season 74 finals.

Ateneo not only ended their almost 5-year losing streak to La Salle, they also gave the Lady Spikers their first “real” defeat since 2010. La Salle had one win reversed last season by a technicality but the last time they lost on the court was in game 2 of the Season 72 finals against UST.

In the first three sets of the match, La Salle led for the most part but Ateneo would always stage a rally towards the end. The Lady Spikers were lucky to escape the first set despite blowing a 23-17 lead. It was all Ateneo come the fourth set as they made sure that there won’t be another La Salle comeback similar to their last elimination round match.

The stellar performance of the Lady Eagles today must have sucked the life out of the team. The team’s energy and swagger that they have shown all season was clearly missing in this game.

Abigail Marano top scored for the Lady Spikers with 17 points while Michele Gumabao and rookie Victonara Galang added 14 apiece.

The series is now reduced to a best-of-three affair. Game 2 will be played this Saturday.

It was a double setback for La Salle in volleyball as the Green Spikers lost to FEU 25-23 19-25 20-25 24-26 in Game 2 of their Final 4 match-up. La Salle will finish in fourth place for the second straight year. FEU will face UST in the men’s division finals.

Note to Season 74 WVT challengers: the road to the championship leads to Taft. Unless a challenger can force a detour through their campus, the Lady Spikers’ inexorable march to a repeat looks very probable.

In today’s match closing the eliminations, the Lady Spikers faced down the determined challenge of Ateneo in 5 sets to finish the eliminations with an immaculate 14-0 record and book a seat to the finals to await the results of the consequential stepladder playoffs.

In the most highly anticipated match between the top 2 placers, the Lady Spikers took everything their Atenean counterparts could dish out, steadied themselves, and took the match pulling away, 18-25, 25-14, 21-25, 25-19 and 15-7. This was the first match in the second round that the Lady Spikers allowed an opponent to take a set, and Ateneo managed 2. But what mattered was not the whitewash but the clean slate at the end of the eliminations. The prize? A shortcut to the finals with a thrice-to-beat advantage.

The Lady Spikers got off slow, as they have in a few games in the past, and Ateneo capitalized on the sluggish start to streak to an 18-25 first set. The same thing happened in their first round encounter, where Ateneo took the first set. Our players struggled with their service reception, particularly with Gervacio’s jump serve, to spot Ateneo that lead that they never completely overhauled in the first set. Uncharacteristic errors and the recurring service errors also gifted Ateneo with some free points in the early going, enough to give them that winning margin that spelled the difference in the first set.

Our team regrouped to pound out a dominating 25-14 second set, and looked poised to run away with the match. However, they lost concentration, made a few errors including the perennial service miscues, and handed the set to Ateneo, 21-25. Again down a set, with their backs to the wall, the Lady Spikers struggled through the second technical timeout before clamping down on defense and varying their attacks to win pulling away, 25-19. Team Captain Cha Cruz, Abi Marano and rookie Reyes shone brightest in that tough 4th set. The net defense stiffened, the floor coverage improved, and Ateneo spikes which which had previously resulted in scores were either blocked or retrieved and returned forcefully, forcing the Ateneans to take riskier shots just to evade the blockers, many of which missed the mark.  By the latter part of the 4th set, the Lady Spikers were all business, and went for the kill. In the final set, the Lady Spikers made it look easy as they ran away from their demoralized opponents, 15-7. Abi Marano was adjudged “Player of the Game”, finishing with 20 points on a variety of runners and quick plays. Cha Cruz, playing her last few games with the team, pumped in 19 points, 18 coming off attacks. Our net defense was anchored by Reyes (10 points) and Gumabao (12 points), who made 2 clean blocks each and altered numerous other opponent spikes.

The capacity of the Lady Spikers to withstand hot starts by the opponents is a testament to their resilience and mental toughness. However, it also puts them in adverse situations that they have to dig themselves out of. Sometimes, it makes us wonder if they look for more challenges just to keep themselves interested. It reminds me of the fictional Borg of Star Trek, whose line “resistance is futile” might be very applicable when describing this edition of the Lady Spikers.

However, the sweep will not amount to anything unless the Lady Spikers complete the task by winning their next 2 games. Let’s cheer them on as they gun for the repeat!

ANIMO!

Notes: Adamson, FEU, UST and Ateneo will figure in a stepladder playoff series to determine the Lady Spikers’ finals opponent. The championship match will start on Feb 25 with La Salle having the thrice-to-beat advantage. The Men’s Volleyball team finished the elimination round with a 9-5 record. They will enter the Final 4 as the 4th seed and will face FEU this coming Wednesday.

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.

Led by Abigail Maraño’s 15 points, the Lady Spikers easily defeated UE today in straight sets, 25-18, 25-14, 25-18. Maraño also finished the game with 11 spikes and 3 blocks.

With the win, La Salle will enter the holiday break undefeated for the third straight year. The team returns to action on January 8 against UST in a rematch of last year’s finals. The Lady Spikers are one win away from sweeping the first round.

In the men’s division, the Green Spikers will be going up against NU tomorrow and Ateneo on Dec 21 right before the break. They are currently at fourth place with a 2-2 record.