The DLSU Green Spikers fell out of the Final Four race after being defeated by the ADMU Blue Eagles in a straight-set match, 25-22, 25-20, 25-21, earlier at the Mall of Asia Arena. With the loss, La Salle now holds a 4-9 win-loss standing.
Marck Espejo led all scorers as he put in 15 points on 11 attacks and four aces for ADMU. Meanwhile, Tony Koyfman, Josh Villanueva, and team captain Karl Baysa scored 12, 11, and 10 points, respectively.
On the other side of the court, Cris Dumago, Arjay Onia, and Joshua Jose led La Salle scorers with eight points each.
The first set saw ADMU take an early lead. At 12-6, however, the Green Spikers sparked an 8-2 run to tie the scores at 14-all. Both teams fought in a tight rally and continued to remain level. With the score at 16-all, La Salle scored three consecutive points on Dumago’s attack and a couple of ADMU errors. The Blue Eagles slowly trimmed La Salle’s lead, however, and were able to reach a breakpoint at 21-all. After that, ADMU proceeded to win the set with a 4-1 run.
A back row attack from Espejo opened the second set that started a 7-2 run for ADMU. At 8-4, the Blue Eagles scored four consecutive points, two of which were from Espejo’s service aces, stretching their advantage to eight points. La Salle countered with a 6-1 scoring run led by Dumago and Jose, to trim the deficit to three points. The two teams proceeded to fight in a close rally with DLSU playing catchup. Late into the set, errors haunted the Blue Eagles that gave way to a one-point lead for La Salle, 20-19. However, Koyfman and Baysa teamed up to take the set for the Blue Eagles at 25-20.
The Blue Eagles showed their potent offense in the third set as they made 7-1 run right of the bat. The Green Spikers found themselves trailing throughout the rest set as they were contained by Blue-and-White. With a 23-14 scoreline in favor of the team from Katipunan, La Salle earned a 6-1 run to trim the deficit to four, 24-20. However, an attack from Villanueva ended the set and match at 25-21.
In terms of team stats, the Blue Eagles outperformed La Salle by a large margin after scoring from 47 attacks, three blocks, and 10 aces against the Green Spikers’ 29 attacks, three blocks, and two aces. However, the Taft-based squad incurred less unforced errors of 15 against ADMU’S 29 errors.
The Green Spikers will play their last game of the season against UE Red Warriors at 8 am on March 5, Wednesday, in the FilOil Flying V Centre.
The scores:
DLSU 63- Dumago 8, Onia 8, Jose 8, Bacon 6, Delos Reyes 4
ADMU 75- Espejo 15, Koyfman 12, Villanueva 11, Baysa 10, Intal 9, Polvorosa 2, Medalla 1
