After tasting their first UAAP Season 81 defeat last Saturday against the UP Lady Maroons, the DLSU Lady Spikers absorbed another loss, this time in a three-set sweep against the UST Lady Tigresses, 20-25, 22-25, 17-25, Wednesday at the Filoil Flying V Center.
A pumped-up UST squad was inspired by the absence of their Fil-Italian hitter, Milena Alessandrini who partially injured her ACL last Saturday. La Salle could not match that intensity as they could only tally 28 attack points compared to UST’s 41.
A poor start in the first set allowed UST to post an 11-3 lead. A deficit that the Lady Spikers could only cut to two points on three occasions: 12-14, 18-20, and 20-22. Two attack points from UST’s Sisi Rondina sandwiched a receiving error from team captain Des Cheng, ended the set.
The second set was a closer affair as both teams were tied at the 22-all mark after a Jolina dela Cruz kill. Unforced errors, something that has been bothering DLSU in their games versus NU and UP last week, continued to hound them as three straight miscues gave UST a commanding 2-0 sets lead.
Trying to find the right combinations, DLSU head coach Ramil de Jesus even fielded a lineup consisting of mostly reserve players plus Cheng and dela Cruz in the third set. The La Salle six could only make things interesting until the 12-all mark before giving up nine of the next 10 points for a huge 13-21 deficit.
Rondina’s kill from the left side, a play that UST has been milking all afternoon, gave the Lady Tigresses match-point before an attacking error from Cheng wrapped up the match.
The last time that a Ramil de Jesus-coached DLSU team lost back-to-back elimination round games was during Season 70 when the team officially lost four straight games to Ateneo, Adamson, FEU, and UST. The team also forfeited their next six games after the UAAP found out that La Salle great Jac Alarca had filed a Leave of Absence (LOA) while donning the Green and White jersey.
No Lady Spiker finished in double figures as the trio of dela Cruz, Julia Ipac, and Aduke Ogunsanya scored eight points each. Cheng was the next leading scorer with seven points and 14 receptions.
La Salle, for the third straight game, committed more errors that their opponents, 23-18.
The Lady Spikers try to snap out of their funk and break their two-game losing streak when they face the UE Lady Warriors on Saturday, March 9 at the same venue.
DLSU (0) – Dela Cruz 8, Ipac 8, Ogunsanya 8, Cheng 7, Cobb 3, Luna 3, Inistrella 2, Alba 1, Santos 1, Clemente 0, Tiamzon 0, Nomil (L)
UST (3) – Rondina 19, Laure 15, Pacres 8, Galdones 7, Viray 2, Galanza 1, Bicar 0, Jimenez 0, Rivera 0, Delerio (L)