Lady Falcons buck big scare vs Pirates

MANILA, Philippines - Adamson survived a fighting Lyceum side and escaped with a scary 25-20, 13-25, 25-23, 18-25,15-13 victory to even its card at 1-1 in the Shakey’s V-League Season 6 at The Arena in San Juan City yesterday.

The Lady Falcons, still reeling from an 18-25, 25-17, 17-25, 16-25 setback to the UST Tigresses in Sunday’s opener of the second conference, took the last two points of the hotly-contested match, courtesy of Pau Soriano]s block and a kill.

The Lady Falcons and the Lady Pirates split the first four sets in varying fashions with the former taking the odd-numbered sets and the latter winning the even-numbered ones to force a decider.

But the two teams battled to a see-saw game in the fifth set until Soriano came through with her heroics to snatch the win for Adamson in one hour and 52 minutes.

Soriano finished with 12 hits for a 16-point output while Jill Gustillo added 13 points, including 11 attacks, and skipper Angela Benting tossed in 12 points.

Guest player Charmaine Moralde remained far from top form although she contributed nine points for the Lady Falcons, one of the teams tipped to contend for the crown in the tournament.

“They are still trying to adjust with their respective games since we still don’t have a gym to train,” said Adamson coach Dulce Pante, referring to the Adamson gym which was damaged by the recent typhoon.

Despite the loss, the Lady Pirates made a good account of themselves with Joy Cases and Nica Guliman each firing 20 hits, including a combined 28-spike production in the tournament backed by Accel, Mikasa, Mighty Bond and OraCare.

Ateneo shrugged off a shaky start to complete a straight-set win over University of the Phils., 25-23, 25-13, 25-13, in the other game.

Charo Soriano, the team’s former star now playing as a guest player, delivered 13 hits while three others churned out double-digit scores to underscore the Lady Eagles’ domination of the Lady Maroons.

Denise Acevedo had 12, while Angeline Gervacio and Fille Cainglet added 11 points apiece as Ateneo served notice of its bid after missing the quarterfinals in the first conference.