source: By Celest Flores
MANILA, Philippines—Quick and easy.
De La Salle University made a suprisingly short work of the University of Santo Tomas, 25-20, 25-19, 25-12, and swept the first round of eliminations for the second straight season Wednesday in the 73rd UAAP Women's Volleyball Tournament at the Arena.Stephanie Mercado, Abigail Maraño and Michelle Gumabao forefronted the furious La Salle attack that exposed UST's long list of weaknesses.
The trio combined for 36 points for the Lady Spikers, who never relinquished their control and lead by as many as 11 in the first and third sets.
"We really focused on our defense. We really prepared and studied UST but I didn't expect it to end this quick," said De La Salle head coach Ramil De Jesus.
The Tigresses looked befuddled all game long, with useless miscues and dismal defense court keying in their doom.
"We weren't able to play our game. I don't want to blame it on the injuries, but it was hard playing hurt," said UST head coach Shaq Delos Santos.
Santos said that leading scorer Aiza Maizo, who still finished with 16 makers, is still bothered by her right ankle sprain while Maica Ortiz and Maru Banaticla are suffering from lower back injuries.
Maizo drew measly support from her teammates with usual scorers like Ortiz and Banaticla only finishing with five and two points respectively.
“At least we saw with this loss the things we really need to work on and how far behind the team is even if it's just one loss,” Santos added.
Last season, it was also La Salle who dealt UST its first loss in the opening round.
The Lady Spikers even went on to win the next six games before the Tigresses thwarted them in the last game of the eliminations and swept them in the finals.
"It was also like this last year, but we're really trying to prevent that from happening again.
In the opener, the struggling Far Eastern U ended the first round in a winning note as it escaped University of the Philippines, 23-25, 25-17, 25-20, 19-25, 15-8, for its first victory.
Reeling from lack of experience with a squad made of up mostly newcomers, veteran Mecaila Morada came to the Lady Tamaraws' defense and finished with a game-high 23 points on 21 attacks.
The Lady Tamaraws even led 2-1 after yielding the opening set, but the Lady Maroons refused to go away by bagging the fourth set.
While La Salle claims solo first place with 7-0 and UST drops to second with 6-1, UP and FEU share the cellar with 1-6 record.
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