The DLSU Green Spikers failed to bounce back in their match against the UST Growling Tigers after they were outlasted in five sets, 25-19, 22-25, 25-22, 18-25, 15-12, last Saturday at the FilOil Flying V Centre. With the loss, they remain winless after two games.
During the game, UST had five double digit scorers. To lead the offense of the Growling Tigers, Jerico Jose scored 18 points on 15 attacks, followed by Manuel Medina with 17 points. Meanwhile, UST team captain Arnold Bautista chipped in 11 points while Jayvee Sumagaysay and Tyrone Jan Carodan scored 10 each.
On the other side of the court, Green Spiker Arjay Onia led La Salle’s scorers with 16 points on 14 attacks, a block, and a service ace. Cris Dumago, Raymark Woo, and Joshua Jose put in 14, 11, and 10 points, respectively.
In the first set, the two teams immediately tried out their various plays to try to get the better of the other. At 13-11, UST’s Jose led a 4-0 run to give the Growling Tigers a six-point advantage, 17-11. The team from España held on to its advantage throughout, taking the first set at 25-19.
A close match ensued between the two teams at the start of the next set. However, it was the UST that slowly pulled away to hold the advantage. At 13-10, in favor of the Thomasians, La Salle scored five consecutive points behind the efforts of Jose and Woo to gain the lead, 15-13. The Growling Tigers immediately tied the game at 15-all with a service ace from Sumagaysay, but a combination of two DLSU attacks and their own errors set them back, 20-17. La Salle maintained its lead until the end of the second set, which it won off an attack from Dumago, 25-22.
The third set saw UST immediately taking the lead with a 4-1 run, which was started with Medina’s drop. La Salle tried to trim the lead, but was unable to as each point it scored was answered with back-to-back points by UST. At 16-10, the Green Spikers saw their chance as errors plagued their opponents to close their score gap to two, 18-16. However, that wasn’t enough to give them a breakpoint. An attack from Bautista ended the set at 25-22, in favor of UST.
The fourth set began with consecutive scores from the Green-and-White squad, to take three-point lead. UST wasted no time to tie the scores, however, at 4-all. Midway through the set, the Green Spikers began to break away after scoring an 8-2 run to take an 18-12 lead. DLSU kept its lead to win at 25-18 to force a fifth set.
Faced with pressure, both teams committed errors throughout the fifth and final set. It was the Growling Tigers that reached an early six-point advantage at 8-2. Not willing to let the other squad best them easily, La Salle tied the score at 10-all behind a 7-1 run. From there, the opposing teams rallied to pull away from the other. However, it was UST who took the set and match with three consecutive scores from Bautista’s attacks and Sumagaysay’s block, 15-12.
The Growling Tigers outperformed DLSU after scoring from 57 attacks and 10 blocks over La Salle’s 50 attacks and six blocks, and incurring only 34 unforced errors against DLSU’s 43 errors. The two teams, however, got four points each from service aces.
“Medyo hindi ako nasatisfy,” Green Spikers head coach Nes Pamilar shared about what he thinks of the performance of his players. “Mas beterano sila sa kalaban pero parang mas nauna silang nanghihinaan ng loob.” He explained that they perform better during their training sessions.
The Green Spikers will aim to secure a win as they will once again take the court on February 15, Wednesday, 10 am at the same venue where they will face the UP Fighting Maroons.
The scores:
DLSU- Onia 16, Dumago 14, Woo 11, Jose 10, Del Pilar 5, Bacon 2, G. Asia 1, R. Asia 1
UST- Jose 18, Medina 17, Bautista 11, Sumagaysay 10, Carodan 10, Tajanlangit 3, Buro 1, Icalina 1
