Earlier today at the Mall of Asia Arena, the DLSU Green Spikers received their first loss of the season at the hands of their archrivals, the ADMU Blue Eagles, in three sets, 25-23, 25-22, 25-15.
Antony Koyfman led both teams in scoring with 15 points, 13 of which came from attacks. Chumason Njigha and Ishmael Rivera contributed 10 points each in the ADMU victory. Chris Dumago had 12 points in the losing effort for La Salle and was the only Green Spiker in double digits.
Signs of what’s to come
The early portion of the first set saw the Green Spikers doing well against the Blue Eagles with DLSU leading 10-5 via a spike from Dumago. ADMU then found a way to tie the game at 11-all following several unforced errors from the La Salle side.
The lead exchanged two more times and turned to a deadlock toward the end, with the set tied at 23 a piece. The Blue Eagles eventually claimed the first set after back-to-back spikes, 25-23.
Multiple errors down the stretch
ADMU utilized the momentum from the previous set and attained a five-point lead at the first technical timeout mark of the second set. DLSU had several attempts at the service line to answer back but committed eight service errors instead which made it difficult for the Green-and-White to mount a comeback.
Near the latter part of the second set, Green Spiker Billie Anima attempted to prevent their archrivals from gaining a two set advantage after trimming the lead to two, 22-20. His efforts were in vain, however, a Kiefer Reyes service error gave ADMU the set, 25-22.
With the game completely controlled by the Blue Eagles, the Green Spikers struggled to stop the series of spikes by Koyfman and Njigha. Aside from this, defensive efforts by Koyfman and a service ace by Lawrence Magadia helped ADMU obtain a commanding 11-point lead, 21-10.
The 13-point scoring run ended after Koyfman made an attack error. DLSU tried several times to fight back but the two set lead and the huge deficit in the third set lowered the morale of most of the Green Spikers. The game was secured by the Blue Eagles following another service error from DLSU’s Geraint Bacon, 25-15.
Both teams were able to maximize their efforts in the blocking and service ace categories with four blocks and four aces each. However, the same can’t be said for the spikes and errors as the Blue Eagles outgunned the Green Spikers with 44 spikes compared to the former’s 33 spikes.
ADMU also took care of the ball and forced the Taft-based squad to commit 23 errors.
The Green Spikers will look to move on from this loss as the team will face the Adamson Soaring Falcons on February 23, Saturday at 10 am, at the FilOil Flying V Centre.
The scores:
ADMU (3) – Kofyman 15, Njigha 10, Rivera 10, Medalla 9, Glorioso 7, Magadia 1, Aguilar 0, Cuerva 0, Ligot 0, Llenos 0, Morado 0, Sumanguid 0,Tan 0, Trinidad 0
DLSU (0) – Dumago 12, Bacon 8, Anima 7, Reyes 6, Delos Reyes 5, Marco 2, De Jesus 1, Aquino 0, Balanong 0, Inocentes 0, Llige 0, Macaspac 0, Serrano 0, Sumalinog 0
