Lady Maroons repel Tigresses

MANILA, Philippines - University of the Philippines rolled to its fourth straight victory with a 3-1 romp over University of Santo Tomas and grabbed the solo lead as La Salle stopped erstwhile unbeaten National University in three in the UAAP women’s volleyball tournament at the FilOil Flying V Center in San Juan yesterday.

Flashing the form they showed in toppling the fancied defending champion Lady Spikers last week, the Lady Maroons wore down the Tigresses in the first two sets then bounced back from a third set defeat to fashion out a 25-22, 25-22, 29-31, 25-19 victory.

Then they emerged the surprise solo leaders in the early going of the tournament as the Lady Spikers overpowered the Lady Bulldogs in a duel of fancied teams, 29-27, 25-16, 25-21, later in the day.

UP thus moved ahead of the eight-team pack with a 4-0 card with La Salle forcing a tie at 3-1 with NU and Ateneo. UST fell to 1-3 while FEU totes a 2-2 mark and Adamson and UE both remain winless in four starts.

Cheered on by a huge UP crowd, the Lady Maroons sustained their top form with Kathy Bersola and Nicole Tiamzon along with Diana Carlos and Isa Molde providing the firepower and defensive spunk.

Carlos came away with 16 attack points and finished with 18 hits while Molde and Tiamzon combined for 27 points for the Lady Maroons, who also pounced on the Tigresses’ sloppy service reception to produce 15 aces.

Marian Buitre and Aeisha Gannaban also added seven points apiece while Bersola had three aces and wound up with four hits.

After taking the first two sets, UP trailed, 18-22 in the third but fought back to drag UST into an extended duel. EJ Laure put UST back on top at 29-28 on a kill but Cherry Rondina committed an error off the serve before Laure came up with another hit and UP yielded the set as Molde’s attack went wide.

UST actually took early control in the fourth, 6-3, but UP rallied to seize a 16-10 which the Lady Maroons used as a springboard to extend their amazing run to four.