De La Salle and Ateneo to fight in second round of UAAP volleyball

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DE LA SALLE Lady Spikers vs Ateneo Blue Eagles — UAAP/JOAQUI FLORES

Games on Wednesday
(Filoil EcoOil Centre)
9 a.m. – La Salle vs Ateneo (men)
11 a.m. – La Salle vs Ateneo (women)
3 p.m. – UST vs Adamson (men)
5 p.m. – UST vs Adamson (women)

RED-HOT De La Salle University shores up its drive for a twice-to-beat incentive against its fierce but struggling rival Ateneo de Manila University at the start of the crucial second round of action in the UAAP Season 87 women’s volleyball on Wednesday at the FilOil EcoOil Centre in San Juan.

Game time is at 11 a.m. with the DLSU Lady Spikers (5-2) eyeing their fifth straight win to keep with the University of Santo Tomas Golden Tigresses in a mad scramble for the second seed behind unbeaten and reigning champion National University Lady Bulldogs (7-0).

Santo Tomas (5-2), which saw its five-game winning run end at the hands of NU in a five-set thriller last weekend to end the first round, shoots for the same mission against the free-falling Adamson University (2-5) in the main game at 5 p.m.

Their men’s teams also battle in the pivotal Final Four placing with La Salle (4-3) and Ateneo (4-3) facing off at 9 a.m. followed by the duel between Santo Tomas (4-3) and Adamson (1-6) at 3 p.m.

The spotlight, however, is on La Salle as Santo Tomas still holds the tiebreaker in a share of the No. 2 seed following its big win in the season opener.

“I want to see the maturity of the team in the second round,” said coach Ramil de Jesus, whose squad was quick to recover from a 1-2 start — tied for the school’s worst in almost 20 years — with four straight wins to end the first round.

“We had a good run to end the round but I want to see consistency. We still have some things to polish from the start to the end of the second round. That’s our goal.”

More than its fifth straight win, the Lady Spikers will also be out in the battlefield to keep mastery of the Blue Eagles with 15 straight wins in their rivalry since 2017.

La Salle, which last bowed to Ateneo in the UAAP Season 79 finals, ran away with a 25-15, 25-14, 20-25, 25-19, win over the latter in the first round before sweeping FEU to cap its campaign.

The Blue Eagles, on the other hand, just came off a 20-25, 25-16, 22-25, 25-15, 15-13 win over the University of the East Lady Warriors to snap a three-game losing skid and gain a share of fifth spot with Adamson at 2-5. — John Bryan Ulanday