In what could be La Salle’s shortest game in terms of total match time in UAAP Season 81, the Lady Spikers only needed 70 minutes to hand the Adamson Lady Falcons a 25-15, 25-18, 25-16 beating, Sunday at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.
Coming off a huge four-sets win over the UST Golden Tigresses last week, the three-time defending champions were hardly threatened by the now 1-10 Adamson squad. Unlike their previous matchup last February 23 at the Filoil Flying V Center where the “swag” game of both squads was one of the game’s talking points, DLSU was all business this time to solidify their second place in the rankings with a 8-3 win-loss record.
La Salle raced to quick 8-1 and 16-5 leads in the opening frame as they completely dominated the attacking (12-6) and blocking (3-0) departments. A service ace by Aduke Ogunsanya once again gave DLSU a double-digit lead and set point at 24-14 before a hit from rookie Jolina dela Cruz closed out the set in favor of the Lady Spikers.
The second set was supposed to mirror the first one after the Green and White squad was leading 8-3 after another hit by Ogunsanya. However, the Lady Falcons finally showed some signs of life and fight, and leaned on open spikers Berns Flora and Trisha Genesis to outscore DLSU 13-7 to take a 16-15 lead at the second technical timeout.
Jolens finished with 13 points to lead the Lady Spikers to their 8th win in 11 games pic.twitter.com/0CukyuaWOB
— GoArchers (@GoArchers) April 7, 2019
Not to be outdone, La Salle’s open hitters – team captain Desiree Cheng, dela Cruz, and Tin Tiamzon – responded with a combined 5-0 run to take momentum back to the Lady Spikers. dela Cruz would cap off her game-long brilliance by scoring the set’s last two points, an off-speed hit and a service ace to give DLSU a two-sets-to-none advantage.
In between third set leads of 8-2 and 16-11 in favor of La Salle, the Lady Falcons managed to close the gap at the 11-9 mark before a combination of DLSU offense coupled with unforced errors gave La Salle the Season 81 sweep of their San Marcellino-based counterpart.
The Lady Spikers won the scoring skills: attacks (34-24), blocks (10-3), and service aces (5-2) while also committed less unforced errors, 20-26.
Jolina dela Cruz led La Salle with a double-double of 13 points and 10 excellent digs, with Cheng backstopping her with 11 points. Rookie Ferlyn Nomil, taking over starting libero CJ Saga midway through the match, contributed 13 digs while starting setter Michelle Cobb dished out 18 excellent sets.
After making it 2/2 against Adamson this season, coach Ramil de Jesus and his wards will try to sweep another team next Saturday as they go up against league-leading Ateneo Lady Eagles, also at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.
DLSU (3) – dela Cruz 13, Cheng 11, Ogunsanya 9, Clemente 7, Tiamzon 6, Luna 2, Cobb1, Alba 0, Santos 0, Saga (L), Nomil (L)
ADU (0) – Flora 7, Genesis 7, Dacoron 5, Soyud 5, Ave 2, Macaslang 1, Permentilla 1, Yandoc 1, Pinar 0, Perez 0, Igao 0, Ponce (L)