14 September 2013, 9:11 p.m. – TWO-TIME defending champion UST Lady Spikers faltered against Adamson University, 22-20, 19-21, 14-16, in the first game of their best-of-three finals series in the UAAP beach volleyball tournament at the University of the East-Caloocan sand court Sunday.
The duo of Maruja Banaticla and Pamela Lastimosa failed to set the tone in the second set, playing catch-up to Adamson’s Shiela Pineda and Amanda Villanueva.
The Lady Falcons led by five, 10-5, after Banaticla’s attack flew out.
Lastimosa was able to cut the lead to one, 17-18, via a power tip.
But Adamson’s floor defense was too much for UST, forcing the Lady Spikers to commit errors and forge a deciding third set.
In the third frame, Pineda waxed hot early with a spike down the gut of UST’s defense, 5-2.
But the Lady Spikers refused to give up and put the game in an eight-all deadlock via a Lastimosa corner shot and a couple of attacks from Banaticla.
UST was looking to finish the match at 14-12 but the bad weather hindered the players’ vision and movement. Adamson maintained its composure and capitalized on its turn at service to take Game 1.
“[The rain] was a huge factor,” said coach Henry Pecaña. “They [Banaticla and Lastimosa] just continued to play [for the of the school] since they were already wet.”
Pecaña expressed regret over the near-win that the Lady Falcons stole.
“It was adrenaline rush. They should’ve finished the match since we were only a point away. Maybe the win wasn’t really for us,” he said. Ralph Joshua D.R. Hernandez
