UAAP: Lady Spikers dethrone Adamson, advance to finals

The DLSU Lady Spikers are now on their way to the finals of the UAAP Season 77 Beach Volleyball tournament after dominating the defending champions, AdU Lady Falcons, in straight sets, 21-11, 21-14, earlier today at the UE Caloocan Sand Court. This is the first time that the Lady Spikers will appear in the finals after missing it for three straight seasons.

In the first set, Lady Spikers Kim Fajardo and Cyd Demecillo had a good start with a 7-1 run to give them an early five point advantage, 8-3. The Taft-based volleybelles continued to produce smart plays and solid attacks and benefited from the errors of Adamson to boost their lead to 10, 17-7. Demecillo scored an ace to put La Salle at set point. The Lady Falcons scored two straight points in the following plays but with a strong attack from Fajardo, the Lady Spikers took the first set, 21-11.

The second set started off with a heated close battle between the two teams with both teams answering each attack that the other throws at them. With the score tied at seven points apiece, the Lady Spikers were able to create some breathing room from their opponents with a 4-1 run to take the lead at 10-8. From that point on, the Lady Falcons were playing catch up as they tried to create runs of their own. Unfortunately, the efforts of the defending champions came to no avail as La Salle’s lead ballooned to six points courtesy of their 9-3 run.

A service error by Adamson’s Amanda Villanueva gave the match point to La Salle, 20-14.

In the next play, Villanueva committed another error as her attack went wide that sealed the match for the Lady Spikers, 21-14. With the victory, the Lady Spikers advance to the finals facing the undefeated UST Tigresses, who have a thrice-to-beat advantage. Game One of the finals will be on Saturday, September 6, 9:30 am while Game Two will be at 10:30 am on the same day. All games will be held at the UE Caloocan Sand Court.