De La Salle University dug itself out of a two-set hole to dethrone National University, 19-25, 23-25, 25-15, 25-17, 15-10, in Game 2 of their best-of-three finals series to rule the University Athletic Association of the Philippines Season 85 women’s volleyball tournament yesterday at the Mall of Asia Arena.
The duo of middles Thea Gagate and Fifi Sharma anchored the Lady Spikers’ vaunted net defense that keyed their rousing fightback to end a five-year championship drought witnessed by a 20,514-strong crowd.
Gagate’s timely blocks in the closing junction of the furious race to finish in the thrilling fifth set gave La Salle significant separation before finally avenging its loss to the same team in the finals last year.
Most Valuable Player and Rookie of the Year Winner Angel Canino delivered her usual production but it was Gagate who put on a show late in the match with three kill blocks before sealing the victory with the finishing hit.
‘We came here and I saw in my players that they really want to win this game.’
Meanwhile, the NU Bulldogs completed a 16-0 tournament sweep for the three-peat crown after an emphatic crushing of University of Santo Tomas, 25-20, 25-21, 25-20, in Game 2 of the men’s best-of-three title series.
The Bulldogs successfully claimed their fifth overall title unscathed to join the 2009 Golden Spikers and the Marck Espejo-led Ateneo de Manila University in 2017 in an elite club of unbeaten champion teams in the Final Four era.
“We’re very happy because this is the first time for NU to complete a sweep. We got the three-peat and we made history with our 34-game winning streak,” Bulldogs coach Dante Alinsunurin said as his squad remained unscathed since 2019.
The Bulldogs, who became the first squad to make three-peat since the Blue Eagles from 2015 to 2017, came down on the Golden Spikers firing on all cylinders as they easily got their way with their rivals showing little resistance.
NU took the fight out of UST early to make sure that there will be no repeat of their five-set Game 1 marathon.
“We came here and I saw in my players that they really want to win this game,” Alinsunurin said.
“Credit goes to our players. We really worked for this after Game 1. We tried to address our lapses in the first game. Everything we wanted came out in this game and we got the win,” the mentor added.
Rookie Buds Buddin, who was named 2nd Best Outside Spiker, led all scorers with 20 points built on 18 attacks, a kill block and one ace on top of 10 excellent receptions for NU.
Nico Almendras added 14 markers, Ken Malinis had eight markers while Finals MVP Owa Retamar celebrated his Best Setter award by dishing out 14 excellent sets to help NU nail 44 kills and scored all of his two points on kill blocks.
The Bulldogs effectively silenced Joshua Ybanez to a quiet 13-point outing after dropping 28 markers in Game 1 on the same day he was named RoY-MVP.
NU opened a 22-16 advantage in the third set after an Almendras hit. The Golden Spikers’ errors became their undoing late in the game with Ybanez hitting his spike long and handing the Bulldogs the championship point.
Gboy De Vega had 10 points while Jay Rack De La Noche, winner of the Best Opposite Spiker award, was limited to six.
