Lady Eagles reduce Maroons to pieces, gain solo lead

MANILA, Philippines — Ateneo outlasted University of the Philippines in a gripping third set battle, 25-21, 25-15, 28-26, to roll to its fourth straight victory and claim solo leadership in the UAAP Season 81 women’s volleyball yesterday.

The Lady Eagles pounced on back-to-back errors by the Lady Maroons to secure their second match point at 27-26, which they converted on a dump by setter Deanna Wong.

ADMU thus seized sole hold of the top spot at 4-1 while pushing erstwhile co-leader UP to the fifth spot at 3-2.

“UP played with high morale. They really played well and fought hard. I guess my players just sought deep inside them what they want. I told them whatever you want, it will happen as long as you really want it, you will get it. We really asked the Lord for strength. We will never go wrong with that,” said Lady Eagles coach Oliver Almadro.

Maddie Madayag led the way with 14 points anchored on her six blocks, Kat Tolentino posted 12 points and 14 digs, Ponggay Gaston came away with 10 points and the same number of excellent receptions while Jules Samonte had eight points for ADMU.

Wong had two points on top of her 16 excellent sets for the Lady Eagles.

UP trailed most of the way in the third set but finally erased a 17-14 deficit, tying the count at 17 and making it a nip-and-tuck battle with ADMU from there.

In the first game, Far Eastern fumbled on errors in the fourth set but regrouped in the fifth to survive an Adamson scare, 25-18, 17-25, 25-14, 22-25, 15-8, and pluck its third straight victory.

A maze of errors befell the Lady Tams in the fourth but they refocused in the decider, giving away only a single miscue while raining down attacks and cashing in on the Lady Falcons’ mistakes to improve to 4-2 at joint third with La Salle and University of Santo Tomas.

Heather Guino-o paced FEU with 20 points, 13 digs and 10 excellent receptions.