Ateneo spikers have momentum on their side

MANILA, Philippines - Ateneo seeks to sustain the momentum from its morale-boosting victory the last time out against a La Salle team aching to get back on track as the two rivals start from scratch in the battle for the UAAP Season 74 women’s volleyball crown at the FilOil Flying V Arena today.

The Lady Eagles, looking for their first-ever title, succeeded at what others failed all season long, staining the thrice-to-beat Lady Spikers’ unblemished mark with a 23-25, 28-26, 25-23, 25-17 triumph at the start of the finals last Wednesday.

This effectively reduced the titular showdown to a race-to-two affair.

“As long as we execute our plans like the last time, we have a chance,” said AdMU coach Roger Gorayeb, whose volleybelles fought the erstwhile unbeaten DLSU spike for spike (56-57), block for block (9-9), and serve for serve (6-5) while committing less errors (20 against 30).

Gorayeb also lauded their reception (33 out of 84) in that victory. “If we just receive well, we can set up good attacks,” he said.

DLSU mentor Ramil de Jesus, for his part, said they would need to take advantage of their height more to get points off blocks.

“It’s more on blocking because we’re quite disorganized (on blocking) the last time,” said De Jesus, who also needs veterans like Cha Cruz and Michelle Gumabao to step up.

“The rookies plaed well but the veterans were quite off. Hopefully we can adjust,” he said.

Preceding the 2 p.m. DLSU-AdMU tussle is the opener of the men’s best-of-three series between five-peat-seeking Santo Tomas and Far Eastern U at 10 a.m.