Sweet sweep, title for L Bulldogs

MANILA, Philippines — Jaja Santiago took the MVP plum and powered National U to a 25-22, 25-19, 19-25, 25-16 victory over Far Eastern U last night as the Lady Bulldogs claimed the inaugural Premier Volleyball League Collegiate Conference crown in grand fashion – via a nine-game sweep.

The Lady Bulldogs charged back from a third set slip and an early struggle in the fourth with a big run midway through, scoring three straight points, including two off the Lady Tams’ miscues, to break away from a 10-all count.

Not even an FEU timeout could slow down the fired-up Lady Bulldogs, who piled up three consecutive hits to go 6-up before Princess Robles hammered in a kill coming off another FEU huddle to pull away at 17-10.

Though FEU took the next two points on Robles and Santiago’s attack errors, NU countered with a three-hit blast of its own and after the Lady Tams threatened last at 15-21, the Lady Bulldogs closed out the match by taking four of the last five.

White confetti rained down the court after Aiko Urdas delivered the championship point with a kill as the Lady Bulldogs, led by coach Babes Castillo, and their supporters celebrated their perfect campaign in the season-ending conference of the league organized by Sports Vision.

NU, which took the series opener, 25-22, 21-25, 25-18, 26-24, thus nailed its third straight collegiate championship counting the two in the 2015-16 seasons of the defunct V-League.

Still, the Lady Tams bowed out with heads held high as they slugged it out with the full-bodied Lady Bulldogs minus  two of their top players – skipper Bernadeth Pons and Kyla Atienza –  who led FEU’s bid in the UAAP beach volley meet also held last night.

Moments after receiving the coveted individual plum, the 6-5 Santiago buckled down to work, unleashing vicious spikes and intimidating the Lady Tams’ hitters with her towering presence as she anchored the Lady Bulldogs’ record feat that included a five-game sweep of the group elims, a two-game romp over the Arellano U Lady Chiefs in the Final Four and another dominant two-game victory over the Lady Tams.

The Lady Bulldogs actually struggled coming off a two-set romp, trailing early in the third, 3-6 and 5-9, before Risa Sato, Jorelle Singh and Santiago combined for four straight hits to pull within one. Czarina Carandang made it a two-point lead with a tip and the Lady Tams kept their rivals in check then flashed a strong finishing kick anchored on Toni Rose Basas, Angelica Cayuna and Heather Guino-o to extend the match.

NU charged back and grabbed a 14-13 lead but back-to-back miscues by Urdas and Santiago shoved the Lady Tams back on top and after Robles fired a down-the-line kill to tie the count at 15, the Lady Tams racked up five straight hits en route to a six-point set win.

Earlier, Santiago, who normed 14.4 points with a 40.82 percent success rate in attack, ran away with the MVP plum with teammates Sato (second best middle blocker) and Gayle Valdez (best libero).

Sato averaged 0.44 kills blocks per set while Valdez normed 3.33 digs per set and posted a 35.43 percent efficiency rate on reception.

Other awardees were Adamson’s Christine Soyud (best outside spiker), Regine Arocha of Arellano (second best outside spiker), FEU’s Jeanette Villareal (best middle blocker), FEU’s Toni Rose Basas (best opposite spiker) and Arellano’s Rhea Ramirez (best setter).