Lady Spikers cap eliminations with a four-set loss to Adamson
by: William dela Rosa and Jasmine Tan
The De La Salle University (DLSU) Lady Spikers absorbed defeat from the Adamson University (AdU) Lady Falcons, 23–25, 25–17, 16–25, 24–26, earlier today at the SM Mall of Asia Arena.
With this loss, they snap their five-game winning streak they built post-haircut era. Nonetheless, the Lady Spikers secure the twice-to-beat advantage following the UST Golden Tigresses’ loss to top-seeded NU Lady Bulldogs.
The Green and White started strong, going 3–0 after a down-the-line bullet from Jolina dela Cruz. La Salle further extended their lead, 10–3, via a Fifi Sharma block after a long rally that also highlighted Justine Jazareno’s digging prowess. The Lady Spikers, unfortunately, scrambled all over the court and committed attack errors on the latter part of the set that allowed the Lady Falcons to slowly creep in. Adamson took advantage of this and stole the first, 25–23.
Similar with the first, La Salle created a huge separation from the Lady Falcons. This time, they managed to take care of their lead. Wonderful placement attack from Malaluan gave La Salle a four-point cushion, 7–3. Thea Gagate then contributed back-to-back quick attacks and helped her squad bounce back from their game miscalculations in the first set, 16–7. Four straight markers from Adamson forced La Salle for time, and dela Cruz immediately responded with a combination play that stopped the bleeding for DLSU, 17–11. The opposing squad attempted to rally back once again, but a service error killed that hope and handed the Taft-based squadthe second set, 25–17.
CRDJ began to shuffle his cards in the third as the starters were out of sync. Continuous errors and miscues from the Lady Spikers helped Adamson build a comfortable margin throughout the game. Baby Jyne Soreño managed to stop bleeding with a down-the-line attack, 7–13, but the Lady Falcons proved too strong as they did not allow DLSU to reduce the margin to less than four the entire set. Lucille Almonte sealed the set for Adamson with a service ace, 25–16.
The fourth set showed a closer encounter, as both squads went tit for tat throughout the set. Gagate caught fire and unleashed three straight that helped her team to stay within distance. An offensive block from Sharma gave La Salle a little bit of hope, but a Trisha Genesis off-the-block attack that put Adamson to a second match point, and a costly attacking error from dela Cruz gave AdU the heart-racing set, 26–24, and the match. 3–1.
Since the NU Lady Bulldogs swept the eliminations, the stepladder format will be followed. The DLSU Lady Spikers, meanwhile, will take on the victor between the UST and either AdU or Ateneo with a twice-to-beat advantage.
Box scores:
DLSU — dela Cruz 12, Gagate 12, Malaluan 12, Cruz 9, Sharma 7, Soreño 4, Alba 3, Coronel 1, Espina 1, Santos 1
AdU — Genesis 20, Almonte 14, Marce 12, Cruz 9, Romero 3, Toring 2
