THE UST Lady Spiker’s title-retention bid suffered a major blow, while the second-seeded Tiger Spikers now await their Final Four matchup after separate UAAP beach volleyball encounters at the University of the East-Caloocan sand court.
In a rematch of last year’s finals, the Lady Spikers’ duo of Maruja Banaticla and Pamela Lastimosa braved the heavy rains, but dropped Game 1 against Adamson University, 22-20, 19-21, 14-16 last Sept. 15.
The Lady Spikers need to win the next two games to capture a third-straight championship.
“[The rain] was a huge factor,” coach Henry Pecaña said. “[Banaticla and Lastimosa] continued to play [for the school] since they were already wet.”
The top-seeded Lady Spikers were serving for match point, 14-12, in the deciding set before a string of errors gave the game away to Adamson’s Sheila Pineda and Amanda Villanueva.
The Tiger Spikers returned to the Final Four after a disappointing last-place finish in Season 75.
The team of reigning UAAP indoor volleyball MVP Mark Gil Alfafara and rookie Kris Guzman earned the twice-to-beat advantage with a 6-1 win-loss card after the eliminations.
In the second set, Villanueva took over early for Adamson to build an 8-4 lead. But UST kept in pace throughout the set before closing in to a single-point deficit, 17-18.
Both teams committed a couple of errors before Pineda prevaild over Lastimosa to win the set for the Lady Falcons, 21-19.
UST and Adamson engaged in a tight first set, with no team leading by more than two points.
Tied at 20 after Lady Falcon Pineda scored on a tip over Lastimosa, the Lady Spikersquickly recovered and took the next two points via a hit by Banaticla and a service ace from Lastimosa to take the first set.
UST earlier survived a knockout match against De La Salle University in the semifinals, 21-14, 11-21, 15-7, to arrange their rematch against the Lady Falcons.
The Lady Spikers denied Adamson of an elimination-round sweep, an outright finals berth and a thrice-to-beat advantage after beating the Lady Falcons in their last game.
The Tiger Spikers await the winner of the matchups between University of the Philippines, Adamson University and last year’s runner-up Far Eastern University in the stepladder semifinals.
Defending champion National University swept the men’s elimination round and automatically qualified for the finals with a thrice-to-beat edge.
