Adamson University and University of the East continued their dominance in the UAAP Season 86 High School Volleyball tournaments after completing respective sweeps of the High School Girls’ and Boys’ divisions, respectively, on Sunday at the Adamson Gym in Malate, Manila.
The Lady Baby Falcons extended their win streak for the season to six on the girls’ side with a victory past Season 85 Finals tormentors National University-Nazareth School Lady Bullpups, 28-26, 17-25, 22-25, 25-14, 15-12.
Adamson needed to come back from a 1 set-2 deficit to complete the first-round romp over their Season 85 Finals nemesis with captain Shaina Nitura taking the cudgels on both sides of the floor with the fifth set.
The Season 85 Best Outside Hitter fired consecutive back-row kills to send the Lady Baby Falcons at an 11-8 advantage before fellow wing spikers Samantha Cantada and Abegail Segui finished the job for the home side.
“Siguro, sabi ko nga, ‘yung mindset lang namin is take it one game at a time. And dapat andon ‘yung respect na paghandaan namin ‘yung kahit sino ang kalaban,” Adamson head coach JP Yude shared.
“Yung relationship namin sa isa’t isa, relationship ng coaches sa mga bata, ‘yun siguro ‘yung nagwowork kaya nasweep namin ‘yung first round. Sabi ko lang rin sa kanila, wala naman silang dapat patunayan.. Magagaling na sila at pakita lang nila ‘yung kaya nila.”
On the other hand, the Junior Red Warriors bagged its seventh straight win in the season with a 23-25, 28-26, 25-18, 25-21 win past University of Santo Tomas Junior Golden Spikers, with one of last year’s Best Outside Hitters, Jan Macam leading the way.
Leading by just two at 22-20, UE took three of the last four points with Macam firing off a kill and Xyrone Montemayor taking care of an overpassed ball from UST. A consequent net fault called on the Junior Golden Spikers ended the match as the Junior Red Warriors remained unbeaten at the sound of the final buzzer.
“Malaki talagang naitulong nung exposure namin bago mag-start ‘yung season. Kumbaga, ‘yung skills nila doon tumaas,” UE head coach Raffy Mosuela said as the last season’s third-placers competed at the Palarong Pambansa early this year prior to the UAAP Season.
“In terms of system, medyo na-familiarize na ‘yung mga bata sa system na ginagawa ko. May mga adjustments na lang kaming ginagawa, depende sa kalaban.”
Adamson raced to a 6-0 start in the first set but NUNS found its groove in the middle part of the set and eventually threatened to pocket it at 26-25. Back-to-back kills from Cantada and Segui turned to tide in the Lady Baby Falcons’ favor before Nitura finished the set with a service ace.
The reigning Girls’ champions would not be denied in the following two sets, taking advantage of the Lady Baby Falcons’ erratic first ball and taking the 2-1 lead with last year’s MVP Kianne Olango at the helm.
That turned out to be NUNS’ last hurrah as Adamson cleaned up its passing and connection to take a rousing third-set victory with middle blocker Angie Del Moral providing the help to their pin hitters to set up the sweep.
The loss saw the Lady Bullpups in unfamiliar territory in fourth place at 3-3 following its third defeat of the season after back-to-back wins.
After losing hold of the first set and going down 0-1 in the first of the two Boys’ division matches, UE climbed back from 11-16 down in the second set to snag the lead at 19-16. Wing spiker Lance Babon took charge of this rally as Macam was pulled out with Montemayor taking the skipper’s spot.
“May mga situation sa bola na hindi niya (Macam) ginagawa, kaya need kong magpalit ng tao para ma-realize niya, makita niya sa labas ‘yung nangyayari,” Mosuela shared.
However, an attack error from Montemayor forced Coach Mosuela to put the captain back on the floor. Macam did not disappoint, scoring three of the last five points of the Junior Warriors to end the second set at 28-26.
The third set eventually saw the UE side that dominated their first six encounters as back-to-back service aces from Macam in the middle of the frame fueled the advantage to 21-14, with two overpassed balls turned to kills from Andrei Mosuela and Luis Pollentes.
The Junior Warriors then settled on an exchange of points with the Junior Golden Spikers but finished the job in the said frame with another Babon attack at 25-18.
With the loss, UST slipped to a 3-4 win-loss record for fifth place after the first round, a game behind Adamson’s 4-3 card and a top-four spot.
In the other matches, NUNS and FEU-D bagged the wins in the other boys’ and girls’ offerings in the day, respectively, to finish in second place in the said divisions behind the undefeated UE and Adamson sides.
The Bullpups, who are now at 6-1, completed a rousing reverse sweep against Boys’ defending champions Baby Tamaraws that took two hours and twenty minutes to finish, 19-25, 25-27, 25-23, 25-22, 19-17.
Matthew Abut paced NUNS in the pivotal fourth and fifth sets to deny Amet Bituin and the whole FEU-D squad the victory despite the latter going into matchpoint advantage five times in that 24-minute deciding frame.
Bituin, Kyle Tandoc, and Luis Miguel connived to help the Baby Tamaraws avert a complete meltdown in the fifth, but Abut and Irilis Kasim had other plans. Kasim rejected a Miguel attack before Abut delivered a huge serve that FEU-D could not properly set up to end the match in their favor.
The Baby Tamaraws slipped to 5-2 and in the third spot, snapping its five-match winning streak and suffering just their second loss from an opening weekend defeat to the UE Junior Red Warriors.
FEU-D, though, got some reprieve as middle blocker Clarisse Loresco carried the now 5-1 Lady Baby Tamaraws to a 20-25, 25-23, 25-15, 25-23 victory past the now 4-2 and third-ranked Junior Golden Tigresses.
Tied at 23 in the fourth set, Loresco finished a good offensive set with a booming kill from the middle before Shiela Pascual ended the battle with a service ace.
The second round of eliminations is set to begin on January 6 at the same Malate venue.
