Lady Spikers bow out of breakthrough season
THE ATENEO Lady Spikers ended their breakthrough Season 70 campaign having historically made their first-ever Final Four appearance, even though it was short-lived.
The Loyola VI bowed to top-seeded Adamson University, 25-19, 26-24, 25-16 in their semifinals match last February 20 at the San Juan Arena, letting Adamson take its ticket to the UAAP Season 70 Women's Volleyball Championships.
Charo Soriano's (MBA) 15 points were not enough to help the Loyola VI take their historic Final Four entry one step further, as she and the rest of the Lady Spikers failed to stop the solid play of Adamson hotshots Michalle Segodine, Rissa Jane Laguilles, Angela Benting, and Jill Gustillo, who all conspired for 50 points.
Patti Taganas (MBA) had nine markers for Ateneo, while Crystal Ballentyne (I AB Hum) and Kara Acevedo (I BS Mgt) chipped in six and seven points, respectively.
After dominating the first set with 14 attacks, Adamson engaged Ateneo in a neck-and-neck battle for the second set. An error committed by Adamson gave a three point lead to Ateneo, 21-18 before Adamson re-snatched the lead, 24-23. Acevedo tied things up at 24, yet Laguilles was just too much for the Ateneo defense. The second set had 10 deadlocks.
The Lady Spikers were up for a final stand by the third set, drawing first blood and leading Adamson, 9-8, courtesy of a Taganas kill. However, Taganas made a service error on the next play, and it was all Adamson after that.
They will now face Far Eastern University, who dethroned defending champions University of Santo Tomas earlier in the day, in the best-of-three title series.
The game marked the final outing for Soriano, Taganas and Karla Bello (MBA), the Lady Spikers' top troika for the past years.
Final Four entry
What was supposed to have been a head-to-head battle for the last Season 70 Final Four spot ended anticlimactically, as an eligibility issue handed Ateneo a spot in the top tier.
This came after the UAAP board stripped De La Salle University—with whom Ateneo had been tightly competing for the fourth spot—of four wins where star Jacqueline Alarca played even when she was on a leave of absence from her school, and therefore already ineligible to play.
As one of La Salle's nullified victories came against the Blue-and-White last January 30, Ateneo's win-loss card at the end of eliminations read 8-6 instead of 7-7. La Salle's final standing was eventually cut to 3-11, shutting them out of the Final Four. Previously, a playoff between the teams had been anticipated.
"Of course we're really glad that now we're a sure in [into] the Final Four," said Acevedo. "But of course part of us feels that it would have been more worthwhile if [La Salle] were there fighting for the fourth spot too."
Before the forfeitures, every match was important for Ateneo to stay in contention after their three-set losses to UST and Adamson, and a 25-17, 25-23, 19-25, 25-19 upset from La Salle.
They did pull off dominating three-set wins over University of the East, National University and University of the Philippines. But, as ace setter Bello said: "To be able to get to the top four, we [had] to win at least two games [including the game against UP]. If we won the remaining game against FEU, we're immediately in [the Final Four]."
The February 10 game against FEU—which FEU won 25-21, 30-28, 25-8—eventually turned from being crucial to a no-bearing match.
Although their long-awaited trip into the Final Four may seem anticlimactic, the Lady Spikers did not stop driving towards the best possible finish in a breakthrough season.
"Nothing really changed, we're still fighting," said Acevedo. "There's no backing down this time, we know that we can do it. We'll just fight for it."