DEFENDING champion Lady Spikers suffered a monumental upset at the hands of the University of the Philippines Lady Maroons for their third loss of the season.
The Lady Maroons, the cellar dwellers, played more like the championship team in pounding out a gritty 25-23, 13-25, 25-23, 20-25, 24-22 victory against UST at The Arena in San Juan last Sunday.
Despite the defeat, the powerhouse Lady Spikers kept their hold on the second spot with a 7-3 win-loss card.
Pre-game analyses predicted a Santo Tomas onslaught against a hapless UP squad, which went into the game with just one victory against 8 losses. The Lady Spikers were riding high on their dominant, three-set victory against the National University four days earlier.
But UP played with a greater sense of purpose, led by Carmelo Lopez, who consistently scored on UST’s porous defense. The veteran spiker finished with 20 points.
Before the victory against NU, the Lady Spikers lost in three seats–23-25, 14-25, 20-25—against the Ateneo de Manila University last Jan. 15.
“We’ve been doing everything during practices, but the problem is their on-court performance and that (inconsistency) is what I want them to figure out,” coach Cesael de los Santos said in Filipino.
UST rallied earlier in the first set courtesy of Aiza Maizo’s cross court shots, 16-15, but unforced errors allowed Ateneo to take the set, 23-25.
The Lady Spikers tried to gain momentum in the second frame following rookie Midori Hirotsuji’s block, 4-7. But a more persistent Ateneo side responded with a 5-0 run. In the decisive third set, the Lady Spikers banked on Judy Caballejo’s crosscourt attacks to allow UST to inch closer, 12-16. Cabellejo attempted to take hold of the third set with another kill, 19-23. But UST ended the set with a four-touch violation.
