The National U Lady Bulldogs leaned heavily on towering Jaja Santiago to slip past the feisty San Sebastian College – Recoletos Lady Stags 25-22, 29-27, 25-21 in the Shakey’s V-League Open Conference at the PhilSports Arena.
Santiago tallied an SVL career-high 27 points off 20 attacks, four blocks, and three aces. The rest of the Lady Bulldogs managed a combined 28 markers.
NU kept targeting SSC’s ace spiker Grethcel Soltones with their serves and attacks to keep the reigning NCAA MVP from gaining momentum. The plan worked as NU dragged every set down to the wire only to muster a closing push.
The first set was tied at 20 before NU sprinted to the finish line through tough serving. The second set came down to two crucial San Sebastian errors that powered the Lady Stags through a tight deuce. NU built a 12-6 cushion in the third set only to have San Sebastian storm back through the efforts of Kath Villegas and Denice Lim. Tied at 20, Aiko Urdas closed the match with loaded serves aimed at Soltones. Unable to attack properly, the Lady Tags stumbled and let NU take the match.
“Ang gameplan talaga is ibigay lahat ng serve kay Grethcel para lang di siya maisama sa mga play at para mapagod na din,” said NU assistant coach Edjet Mabbayad.
Soltones, Lim, and Villegas each contributed 12 points for the perennial NCAA runners-up.
The NU Lady Bulldogs (1-0) take on the TIP Lady Engineers (1-0) in Group A action on August 8 at the PhilSports Arena. The Lady Stags (1-1) try to recover also against the Lady Engineers on August 15 at the Philsports Arena.
The Scores
NU (3) – Santiago 27, Paran 8, Urdas 7, Doromal 6, Sato 5, Nabor 2, Valdez (L)
SSC-R (0) – Lim 12, Soltones 12, Villegas 12, Sta Rita 8, Guillema 3, Tianco 1, Oliveros 0, Santos 0, Eroa (L)
