After suffering their first loss of the season, the De La Salle Lady Spikers took care of the FEU Lady Tamaraws, 25-17, 27-29, 25-14, 25-9 at the MoA Arena.
La Salle seemed out of sorts in the first two sets, but eventually regained their championship form to annihilate the Lady Tams in the last two sets. La Salle wound up racking up the advantage on all offensive categories as they out-spiked (52-41), out-blocked (10-2), and out-aced (9-6) the Lady Tams while giving up significantly less errors (21-32).
La Salle surged ahead 3-0 in the first set behind Kim Fajardo’s destructive service. FEU kept it close with tough floor defense and took an 8-6 lead into the first technical timeout. La Salle’s impervious blocking and a volley of spikes from team captain Ara Galang gave DLSU the advantage, 16-9. La Salle walled off all FEU comeback attempts with their trademark defense that forced FEU to multiple errors late in the first set.
Both teams played hot potato with the lead early in the second set. FEU’s balanced attack lent them an 11-8 lead, but La Salle battled back to eventually make it 17-15 in their favor. FEU held tough for the rest of the set, riding their zippy floor defense to force a deuce. It took FEU four set point advantages to seal the set as a valiant Galang kept spiking her team out of trouble. La Salle let go when Galang rotated to the back row.
A slew of early FEU errors buoyed La Salle to a 16-10 lead in the third set. Third year vet Carol Ann Cerveza sparked La Salle from off the bench. The sister of former La Salle men’s volleyball player Philip Cerveza, she turned in three spikes for her team, helping La Salle claim the set handily.
La Salle began the fourth frame with a fury, netting the first eight points of the set. La Salle finished the set with seven block kills and four aces to dispose of the Lady Tams.
The win puts La Salle firmly at second place with a 7-1 slate while FEU drops to sixth at 3-5. DLSU will face UP next on Jan. 25 while FEU will face UE on Jan. 24.
The scores:
DLSU- Galang 17, Demecillo 13, Fajardo 10, Reyes 10, Cerveza 8, Dy 6, Baron 4, Soyud 2, Cheng 0, Macandili (L) 0, Cruz Ci. (L) 0
FEU- Pons 13, Malabanan 8, Palma 8, Basas 6, Guino-o 4, Simborio 3, Dawson 3, Casugud 2, Negrito 1, Agno (L) 0, Atienza (L) 0
