Arellano University recovered from two sets down to gut out a 25-17, 26-28, 22-25, 25-23, 15-12 win against San Sebastian College-Recoletos in the NCAA Season 99 women’s volleyball tournament on Sunday at the Filoil EcoOil Centre.
The Lady Chiefs stared at a 1-2 set deficit but got their act together in the fourth and deciding set to secure their first back-to-back wins of the season and improve to 3-2.
The Lady Stags, however, fell short of their breakthrough to go 0-5.
San Sebastian was on the verge of its first-ever victory in Season 99 when Tina Marasigan nailed back-to-back attacks that handed them a 23-22 lead in the fourth set. However, a crucial call on Moming Padillon's attack tied things up before she hammered another one through to bring Arellano to the set point.
Dodee Batindaan then took advantage of an overpass from Juna Gonzales to force an extension.
Errors hounded the Lady Stags in the endgame with two consecutive infractions from their side giving Arellano a pivotal 6-4 cushion before Pau de Guzman sent them to a 10-6 advantage.
Rookie Heart Villaflores, who was only inserted in the game in the fourth set, impressed with a cross court kill to deliver the match point at 14-10 and finished it off with a down-the-line attack.
De Guzman churned out another big game with 21 points and seven receptions while Padillon and Batindaan chipped in 13 and 12 markers apiece. Villaflores chimed in with eight points all in the fourth and fifth sets.
"Masaya na malungkot. Masaya kasi nanalo pero malungkot kasi kung titignan mo nu'ng second set, lamang na kami ng pito. Hindi na-realize ng mga players na dumidikit na 'yung score ng Baste," Arellano head coach Obet Javier said.
"Sana magtuloy-tuloy pa kasi ang dami pa naming dapat daanan."
(Happy but somehow sad. Happy because we won but sad because if you'll see in the second set, we were up by seven. The players did not realize that Baste was inching closer. Hopefully, after this win, there will be more since we still have a lot to go through.)
Kath Santos once again top-scored San Sebastian with 21 points while Marasigan collected 15 markers, but their efforts went for naught anew.
—JKC, GMA Integrated News
