Nitura, Lady Falcons soar to F4 with victory over Lady Tams
Adamson ended the UAAP Season 88 women’s volleyball tournament elimination round with a huge sigh of relief after zooming past Far Eastern University, 25-20, 25-22, 25-23, at UST Quadricentennial Pavilion on Saturday.
Not only did the Lady Falcons end the preliminaries with a 9-5 record, they also secured a ticket to the Final Four.
At the forefront of that win was, expectedly, Shaina Nitura.
“Yesterday, we trained and we knew we might play our ugliest game, but our focus wasn’t on that. Even if it turns out ugly, the only goal we had was to win, whether it be in five, four or three sets—we’ll do our best.”
Adamson’s game, however, was anything but ugly.
Already leading two sets to none, Adamson looked well on its way to a dominant sweep with an 18-13 lead in the third set.
The Lady Tamaraws, though, refused to go quietly, mounting a 6-1 run to tie the set at 19-19.
A 3-0 response from the Soaring Falcons, including two aces from Shaina Nitura, gave them a comfortable 22-19 cushion that they held onto until the end.
Lhouriz Tuddao nailed the final point to officially punch the Lady Falcons’ ticket back to the Final Four, a stage they haven’t reached since Season 85.
Nitura finished with a double-double of 18 points and 10 receptions. Frances Mordi and Tuddao helped Adamson’s cause with 12 and 10 markers, respectively. Faye Sagaysay was also instrumental with 19 excellent sets.
“The Adamson community can expect us to fight until the end [in the Final Four]. Wherever we end up, we know it’ll be God’s will,” said Nitura.
Gerzel Petallo finished with 11 points, but to no avail, as the final playoff spot remained up for grabs between FEU and the University of Santo Tomas.
The Lady Tamaraws dropped to a 7-6 card, while the Golden Tigresses are ahead at 7-5.
Earlier, the University of the East’s losing woes continued until the end of its campaign with a 25-23, 25-19, 29-27 loss at the hands of Ateneo.
The defeat sent the Lady Red Warriors to a second straight winless season, but make no mistake about it—it didn’t give Blue Eagles coach Sergio Veloso any edge at all.
“In the end, we gave a good fight. Our focus continued, but it was hard,” he said after steering Ateneo to a 2-11 record. “We tried to do our best all the time. It didn’t matter if we started well or not, as long as we tried our best all the time.”
Dona De Leon led Ateneo in the win with 14 points built on 11 attacks, two blocks and an ace. Jihan Chuatico followed with 12. KC Cortez paced the Blue Eagles with 22 excellent sets, along with three points.
Khy Cepeda left it all on the floor with 18 points for UE, but it was all for naught. Van Bangayan’s 12-point outing also went to waste. The last time the Lady Red Warriors won a UAAP game was in their final outing of Season 86, when they defeated the University of the Philippines.
