02 December 2012, 11:03 p.m. – THE UST Lady Spikers recovered from a horrible third set in time to upend defending champion De La Salle University, 25-22, 25-13, 12-25, 21-25, 15-9, in the UAAP women’s volleyball tournament at The Arena in San Juan Sunday afternoon.
The pulsating victory snapped UST’s losing skid against La Salle, which began in their UAAP finals encounter in February 2010.
Judy Caballejo scored all but five of her 22 points in the deciding set, including a quick attack, to put the finishing touches to the victory.
Maika Ortiz and the sophomore Carmela Tunay added 13 and 10 markers, respectively, while Abigail Marano and Mika Reyes paced the Lady Archers with 14 markers apiece.
The Lady Archers seemed on their way to repeating their come-from-behind win against UST in the University Games where they rose from two sets down to search the win. But the Lady Spikers got too much firepower this time, especially from Caballejo and Maru Banaticla in the fifth set.
Banaticla, who looked out-of-sync in the first four sets, made her presence felt when it mattered most, scoring three points in the last set to jack up UST’s lead, 13-7.
“Maganda naging adjustments ng La Salle (in third and fourth sets), but we stuck to our original strategy in the last set (to win the game),” coach Odjie Mamon said.
Caballejo and Banaticla came in fresh from the 2nd Asian University Beach volleyball. They reached the quarterfinals of the tournament, beating Malaysia and Korea in the eliminations.
The Lady Spikers will next face the National University on Dec. 5, 3:30 p.m., at the same venue. Jan Edward B. Ballesteros
