Shakey’s V-League 1st Conference Finals: Game 3s
MOA ARENA, Pasay City—Before a near capacity crowd and a LIVE captive television audience, the University of Santo Tomas (UST) Tigresses and the National University (NU) Lady Bulldogs extended their respective series to set up an all-or-nothing match up for both the Battle for Third and the Championship of the Shakey’s V-League 1st conference here.
The sudden-death double-header takes place on June 2, Sunday, at the historic PhilSports Arena in Pasig City. The games begin at 1:00PM and will be aired live once again on official broadcaster GMA News TV and its international carrier GMA Pinoy TV.
UST won three straight sets after dropping the opener 24-26, 25-17, 25-20, 25-17.
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Guest player and former league MVP Aiza Maizo led the Tigresses with 19 points, but it was the timely defensive plays and key attacks of junior Pam Lastimosa who claimed Player of the Game honors. Lastimosa finished with 17. Centers Jessy de Leon and newly installed league’s Best Blocker Maika Ortiz contributed 14 and 11, respectively. UST also survived a mere four point performance from the usually steady Carmela Tunay, but rode out the young spikers’ slump as a team and forged the victory.
Adamson were led by outgoing regular Pau Soriano with 16 markers, but hardly anything else from anyone else as guest player/assistant coach Angela Benting could only muster 12 points and Game 1 heroine Sheila Pineda had only seven in a match that the Lady Falcons kept close but couldn’t get over the final humps.
WATCH THE WHOLE ADAMSON-UST GAME 2 HERE
Their duel, however, was not without its share of highlights as a multitude of long rallies got the crowd involved and both squads went all out. UST happened to be the more consistent and the triumph was celebrated by the Tigress faithful—and prayed for a win by Ateneo as UST would have claimed the third place plum had the Lady Eagles won the crown today by virtue of an edge in the quotient.
Ateneo also wanted to avoid giving the Lady Bulldogs any headway after a rousing straight-sets win in Game 1 last Thursday.
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But it was NU that started on a high note by quickly opening the match with a 4-0 lead and even led by five at several occasions. However, the Lady Eagles began stringing points together thanks to a resurgent Alyssa Valdez—who was nursing a sore shoulder and played only sparingly in the first encounter—and Thai reinforcement Jaroensri Bualee. In fact, Ateneo made it to matchpoint first at 24-23, but league’s Best Attacker Myla “The Typhoon” Pablo unleashed a wicked set of offensive weapons and was instrumental in scoring three consecutive points for the Lady Bulldogs to snatch the first set, 26-24.
From then on, NU’s guest player Rubie de Leon sent sets to a wide variety of targets, including newly installed league MVP Din-Din Santiago who more than made up for a lacklustre seven point outing in Game 1 by registering a respectable 12 markers in this do-or-die match for the Lady Bulldogs. “The Supernatural” Aiko Urdas then became a defensive juggernaut as she successfully sent back attacks from Valdez, Bualee and even former league Finals MVP Rachel Anne Daquis; joining forces with 6’4” teenage sensation Jaja Santiago and de Leon in making life miserable for Ateneo’s front row spikers all throughout.
Coach Roger Gorayeb continued with his Game 1 gambit for inserting seldom-used, but highly-skilled back-up center Amy Ahomiro heavily throughout the game. But in exchange for her presence—and stellar efforts—Ateneo had to bench known scorers Daquis and Fille Cainglet as the Lady Eagles attempted to beef up their defense, but the taller and more synchronized Lady Bulldogs just bulldozed their way to kill after kill.
Ateneo kept in step, though. Valdez and Bualee varied their attacks and met a certain degree of success. They combined for 32 markers (Valdez—17, Bualee—15). However, the rest of the team could only chip-in 26 points behind them, including an anaemic four points from Daquis and three from Cainglet, primarily due to Ahomiro (7 points) eating into their combined minutes.
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In the end, NU avenged their opening game thrashing by inflicting the same punishment against the Lady Eagles 26-24, 25-23, 25-22. Pablo snared the Player of the Game accolade with a team-high fifteen points for NU who have the momentum to snare their first ever league championship in their first ever Finals appearance this Sunday.
For the Lady Eagles, it’s back to the drawing board as the straight-sets loss should sound alarm bells to have them go all out to defend the championship that they have owned for the past two conferences. Its 2011 champion coach Charo Soriano joined “retired” players Gretchen Ho and Dzi Gervacio on the Ateneo bench—an image I referred to as “Roger’s Angels” while doing the broadcast duties for a live audience on GMA News TV. On the other side, NU boss Hans Sy and Athletic Director Junel Baculi were on hand to give the Lady Bulldogs a boost. The pro-Ateneo venue fell silent as the Lady Eagles silently left the court with heads bowed.
WATCH THE WHOLE ATENEO-NU GAME 2 HERE
In sports, we have a saying that one should have a very short memory. Both Adamson and Ateneo should bear that in mind as they troop to PhilSports. UST and NU are now looking to build on much needed momentum to claim what they believe is rightfully theirs. At the end of the day, this will be the best wind up of the conference we will have in recent years. The fans will be the biggest benefactors of this Sudden-Death Sunday matchup; even those who won't be able to get tickets and watch LIVE on GMA News TV.
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May the best teams be rewarded and may we all be treated to the highest level of volleyball—ever.
Editor's note: The blogger's views do not represent Yahoo! Southeast Asia's position on the topic or issue being discussed in this post.
Follow Noel Zarate on Twitter (@NoelZarate)
