The Green Spikers split their first six games evenly in the UAAP Season 74 Men’s Volleyball Tournament at the Fil Oil Flying V Arena to finish in the three-way log jam with Final Four contenders Adamson University (AdU) and University of the Philippines (UP).
DLSU’s top two spikers, Team Captain Myco Antonio and sophomore Red Christensen, held the DLSU banner in the post-season bid.
Antonio, III BS-ENT, paced the Taft-based Spikers; he ranked twentieth in the tournament’s scoring division and is the 8th Best Spiker of the tournament with a 38.14 efficiency percentage.
Christensen is DLSU’s leading Best Scorer, fourteenth in the league and seventh in the blocking department. Both aided the team in garnering an identical 3-3 win-loss record.
The boys in Green, however, got whipped in their fifth match-up by the National University (NU) Bulldogs last December 18 in straight sets 18-25, 21-25, 20-25.
In the last play date of 2011, the Green Spikers returned the favor to theAteneo de Manila University (ADMU) Blue Spikers via a 25-23, 25-14, 25-12 shut-out behind the double-digit production from theAntonio-Christensen 1-2 combo.
Overpowering the Katipunan counterparts
Team skipper Antonio teamed up withChristensen to quickly dispose off any opposition from the Mia Mario-mentored Ateneo crew in just two minutes over an hour.
Divine Light Academy-Las Pinas standout Antonio topscored for the Taft-based Spikers with 17 points on 13 kills, three blocks and two from the service box.
Fellow southpaw Christensen also ended the game with 12 markers to contribute in the 41 total team spikes output.
Fellow GreenSpikers Carlo Rivera, AljunBartolome and Philip Ellison Cervezapooled for 24 points.
The Sammy Acaylar-mentored squad pounded on the opponent’s unforced errors 22-14 and netdisadvantage,roofing six more spike attempts 9-3.
With their offense on the get-go,the Green Spikers completed the sweep at 25-23, 25-14, 25-12, pushing ADMU to the edge of the over-all standings at 1-5 win-loss card.
Former UAAP Rookie of the Year Duane Craig Teves was the lone bright spot in the blue corner, chipping double digits kills at ten.
Bullied by the National U Bulldogs
The Antonio-Christensen tandem did not click as a retooled National U upset the Centennial squad in a three-set fashion, 18-25, 21-25, 20-25.
The Gold-and-Blue’s defense surrounded Christensen, allowing him to get a meager eight points, while Antonio stayed true to form registering a game-high 15 points.
TeammateAljunBartolome, however, stepped up for the Green-and-White roster with 11 markers.
The NU’s side had a more balanced offense with four players averaging 11.75 points in the DLSU-NU tiff off.
