National University Lady Bulldogs began its quarterfinals campaign in solid fashion, with a 25-17, 25-19, 25-17 demolition of the De La Salle Dasmariñas Lady Patriots in the Shakeys V-League Collegiate Conference at the FilOil Flying V Arena Saturday afternoon.
The Lady Bulldogs quickly established a 5-0 lead in the first set, as they harnessed the errors committed by the Lady Patriots in its early phase, but the lead vanished in a swift manner when the Lady Bulldogs committed errors of their own to allow the Lady Patriots to get in the game. Returning Lady Bulldogs’ Head Coach, Roger Gorayeb, also fielded veteran Setter, Ivy Perez, in place of rookie Rica Diolan, as the latter accounted for the most errors the Lady Bulldogs during the early parts of the first set. Behind Jorella Singh and sisters Jaja and Dindin Santiago-Manabat, the Lady Bulldogs managed to pull away the first set from the error prone Lady Patriots.
In the second set, the Lady Bulldogs continued to dominate over the Lady Patriots when errors from DLSU-D once again helped the Sampaloc-based squad to create some separation. The third set saw both teams played a nip-and-tuck volleyball. They each exchanged errors all throughout the match until they settled at a tied score at nine. From there, Singh and Pablo combine forces to take the game from the Lady Patriots.
After the game, Lady Bulldogs Head Coach Roger Gorayeb lauded the services done by Assistant Coach Edjet Mabbayad, who took over coaching duties for the team, while he took a break from coaching the team.
“Maganda naman ang pagka-handle ni Coach Edjet [Mabbayad] sa team. Parang ayoko ko nga bumalik, nagpapasalamat din ako kina Edjet dahil na handle nila nang maayos ang team,” Gorayeb said.
Still Gorayeb admitted there are things to improve for the Lady Bulldogs.
“Blockings and attacks pa yung kailangan i-improve sa kanila,” Gorayeb added.
Pablo, Manabat and Santiago chipped nine points each to lead the Lady Bulldogs, while Singh added eight points.
Iumi Yongco and Mariebeth Lara scored seven points apiece with Cherry Rose Nunag coming through with six points for the Lady Patriots.
The Lady Bulldogs will continue their quarterfinals campaign against the College of Saint Benilde Lady Blazers on August 23 at 12:45 PM while the Lady Patriots next assignment is against the defending Collegiate Conference champion the Far Eastern University Lady Tamaraws in the same day at 3:00 PM at the same venue.
The Scores:
NU (3)– Manabat 9, Pablo My. 9, Santiago 9, Singh 8, Urdas 4, Perez 3, Nabor 1, Diolan 1, Pablo Ma. 1, Paran 0, Doromal 0, Doria, General (L)
DLSU-D (0)– Yongco 7, Lara 7, Nunag 6, Sy 3, Dadang 3, Delfin 1, Castillo 1, Navidad 0, Amutan (L), Bartolazo (L)
