Shakey’s V-League 1st Conference Semifinals: NU advances to its first ever Final; meets Ateneo
THE ARENA, San Juan City—The gallant stand of the Adamson University (AdU) Lady Falcons came to an end as the steady play of Myla Pablo and Rubie de Leon allowed the National University (NU) Lady Bulldogs triumph in the last semifinal battle of the conference 24-26, 25-20, 25-15, 25-22 and book a finals date with defending champions Ateneo de Manila University (AdMU) before a capacity crowd here.
WATCH THE WHOLE NU-ADAMSON GAME 3 BROADCAST HERE
The Finals begin on Thursday, May 23 at the MOA Arena in Pasay City.
NU’s 6’2” captain and MVP frontrunner Din-Din Santiago led all scorers with 24 as the Lady Bulldogs had to recover from a first set setback after leading by as much as six points, 11-5 and five points, 21-16 in the twilight. The Lady Falcons, behind a series of key blocks by captain Pau Soriano, newcomer Mylene Paat and veteran Faye Guevara along with the consistent cross-court bombs by Sheila Pineda showed incredible resilience to snatch the opener 26-24, and followed it up with a celebration that looked like they had already won the championship.
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For the Lady Bulldogs, they chose to forget the heart breaker as they came out firing in the second set behind Din-Din, now regular starter Mina Aganon and “The Supernatural” Aiko Urdas. The NU defense also proceeded to keep Adamson guest player/assistant coach Angela Benting in check as the team’s leading scorer could only muster a game total of seven attack points on 22 attempts for only ten points after averaging 20 points in the first two games of the series.
A spate of errors and excellent offense engineered by de Leon had NU trouncing the Lady Falcons big-time in the third set and for the first time in the series, the Lady Bulldogs were the ones holding that daunting 2-1 lead heading into the fourth.
But then we all knew Adamson wasn’t done yet.
After the first two matches of the Best-Of-Three series went the distance, NU was looking to avoid having to face the Lady Falcons resolve in a fifth set. The Lady Bulldogs once again raced to an early lead and kept the Adamson offense at bay with timely blocks by 6’4” teenage phenom Jaja Santiago and a now humming Pablo and raced to a 21-15 advantage before the Lady Falcons began chipping away once again, scoring six straight points to level the set at 21 apiece.
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With the score tied at 22 all, Pablo took personal responsibility for pulling the match out of the fire as she went on to score the final three points on vicious attacks taking it straight to the Adamson defense en route to 20 points and ending hostilities in style with her “dance of joy”.
Adamson now has to be content in battling the University of Santo Tomas (UST) for third place in a Best-Of-Three series that will serve as the curtain-raiser for the Finals on Thursday.
It will be the first trip to the Finals for the upstart crew from Sampaloc, Manila since joining the league in 2010.
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The titular series between NU and three-time first conference queens Ateneo will bring up many intriguing match-ups and is foreseen by many aficionados as a humdinger of an affair. It was also pit a rookie Head Coach in NU’s Edjet Mabbayad going up against a grizzled tactician in Roger Gorayeb who was instrumental in bringing the Lady Eagles to the Universities Athletic Association of the Philippines (UAAP) Finals twice and steered the San Sebastian College-Recoletos (SSC-R) Lady Stags to numerous National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) crowns.
Gametime on Thursday is at 2PM starting with the UST-AdU tiff followed by the championship series between NU and AdMU. Sev Sarmenta and Mozzy Ravena will be handling the broadcast duties for Game 1 while I rejoin the Remulla sisters for Game 2 (Sunday, May 26, also at the MOA Arena).
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Official TV coveror GMA News TV will be airing Game 2 and Game 3 (if necessary) of both series LIVE.
Well, from ten teams we are down to the final two to contest the championship and with both teams having only one defeat each so far this season, this is going to be a classic.
So who are you cheering for?
Follow Noel Zarate on Twitter (@NoelZarate)
