Green Spikers maintain tight grip on third spot

The DLSU Green Spikers continued to assert their dominance in the Men’s Volleyball Division of the UAAP, as they defeated the hapless University of the East (UE) squad, 25-17, 25-15, 25-14, in a one-sided 53-minute affair, Jan. 12 at the Fil-Oil Arena in San Juan to end their first round of UAAP Men’s Volleyball action with two straight wins.
Green Spiker Mark Lee, the league’s best server and second-best spiker, had 18 hits composed of 13 spikes and four service aces for another all-around performance.
Team captain Chris Macasaet, the league’s second-best blocker, also had 15 points, as he moved into fourth place among the top scorers in the league with 92 points in total, which tied him up with Adamson University’s (AdU) Ron Jay Galang, while Lee, not to be outdone, sits a few notches below Macasaet at sixth place with 81 total points.
Spike department was overwhelmingly in favor of La Salle, 40-24, while they also out-blocked the Recto-based squad 8-3. Finally, the Taft-based Spikers managed seven service aces against a lone service ace made by the entire UE team courtesy of Raymond Acaya.
The game also saw the Green Spikers minimize their errors, committing a mere 18 to the 20 of their rivals.
The Warriors, in a losing effort, were led by Homer Lauresta and Jay Kim Subiaga, who both netted eight points, as the Recto-based squad was again tied for the league’s lowest record with Ateneo De Manila University (ADMU) with a lone win against six setbacks.
The win raised the record of the Green Spikers to five wins against only a couple of losses to remain firmly grounded at the third spot and is only a half-game behind the defending champions University of Santo Tomas (UST), who lost later to last year’s finalist Far Eastern University (FEU).
Back To Winning Ways
Another chapter was added to the time-honored La Salle-Ateneo rivalry, but this volleyball match between the rivals was hardly a classic but more of a one-sided affair. The DLSU Green Spikers steamrolled to a 25-19, 25-18, 25-20 victory over their rivals ADMU to notch their fourth win in six outings, Jan. 9 at the Fil-Oil Arena in San Juan
Chris Macasaet, team captain of the Green Spikers and the fifth-leading scorer of the tournament so far, paced the attack of the Sammy Acaylar-mentored spikers with 19 hits, including 13 attacks, three blocks and three service aces.
The fifth year player out of De La Salle-Lipa got all the help he needed, including 11 markers from last year’s Rookie of the Year Myco Antonio, and 10 points from Kevin Dela Vega, who also competed in the Beach Volleyball Tournament of the UAAP.
The Eagles, who carried a two-win, four-loss card entering the contest, were outperformed in almost every category most visibly in the spike (29 against the 40 of the Taft-based Spikers) and the blocks departments (five against the 14 of the Green Spikers). They, however, got the better of their rivals in terms of minimizing their errors, as they had 18 against the 21 of the DLSU Squad.
The Blue-and-White Squad, direly missing the services of last season’s Most Valuable Player (MVP) Andre Joseph Pareja, whom they lost to graduation, was led by the 11 points of John Joseph Sandoval.
The win not only enabled the Taft-based Spikers to maintain a stranglehold of the third place, which is also being eyed by the University of the Philippines, but they were also able to get back on the winning track after dropping a straight set game against last year’s finalist and hitherto unbeaten Far Eastern University squad last Dec. 18.
The Tamaraws and the defending champions UST remain as the only teams who have managed to topple the Green-and-White Squad, who are looking to barge into the Final Four phase of the tournament after placing fifth last season.