The third-seed UST Golden Tigresses will face an uphill climb in the UAAP Season 84 women’s volleyball tournament Final Four after getting trounced by the NU Lady Bulldogs who forced a stepladder format, 25-22, 29-27, 25-17, at the Mall of Asia Arena on Thursday.
By pummelling the Tigresses, the Lady Bulldogs scored their 14th elimination-round win, automatically qualifying them for a finals slot.
The Tigresses, meanwhile, will face either the Adamson Lady Falcons or the Ateneo de Manila Blue Eagles as their opponents for a one-off match, wherein the winner will face the twice-to-beat DLSU Lady Spikers for a finals ticket.
The Tigresses played catch-up in most of the first set, which NU eventually won, 25-22.
The Tigresses were down, 13-11, in the second salvo when they unleashed a 7-1 run to gain a four-point lead, 18-14.
However, the momentum switched in favor of NU when the set point was raised to 29. Lady Bulldogs Camilla Lamina and Sheena Toring scored back-to-back kills to give The Lady Bulldogs a two-sets-to-none lead.
The Lady Bulldogs took advantage of a deflated UST squad in the third set to complete the sweep, 25-17.
Eya Laure was the sole double-digit scorer for UST with 13 points.
NU had four scorers in double digits with Princess Robles tallying 13 markers, Bella Belen and Alyssa Solomon scoring 12 points apiece, and Toring scattering 11.
The Tigresses had a 4-3 win-loss record in the second round after going 5-2 in the first round. Nicole Anne D.G. Bugauisan
