The UST Tiger Spikers withstood a furious rally and held off the De La Salle Green Spikers, 25-21, 25-16, 15-25, 23-25, 16-14, to open the UAAP Season 80 men’s volleyball tournament at the Mall of Asia Arena Saturday.
The Tiger Spikers wasted a two-set advantage and allowed La Salle to take the next two, but did just enough to secure the fifth following an error byGreen Spiker Arjay Onia.
“I always welcome five-set matches for character building. We could have won the game in three or four sets lang pero unfortunately, nawala sa focus ‘yong dalawang main players kaya we have to work on that,” UST head coach Odjie Mamon told the Varsitarian.
Back-to-back errors by the Tiger Spikers allowed the Green Spikers to break free from a 23-all deadlock in the fourth salvo.
Onia’s off-the-block hit capped off a dominant third frame rally by the Green Spikers that prevented a sweep, 25-15.
UST unleashed a 9-4 blitz late in the second set, 24-16, topped by Arnold Bautista’s service ace for a 2-0 set lead.
Bautista and Tyrone Carodan tandemed with back-to-back hits to give UST the first set, 25-21.
Joshua Umandal impressed in his UAAP debut with the Tiger Spikers with 21 points.
La Salle’s Arjay Onia had 20 markers.
The Tiger Spikers will face the University of the East on Feb. 7, Wednesday, 8 a.m., at the San Juan Arena.
