Colegio de San Juan de Letran avoided a major collapse after eking out a 25-15, 25-21, 19-25, 19-25, 15-11 victory against Lyceum of the Philippines University in their stepladder semifinals showdown in the NCAA Season 99 women's volleyball tournament on Wednesday at the Filoil EcoOil Centre.
The Lady Knights unleashed a huge 7-0 closing rampage to pull off the hard-earned victory and to clinch a finals spot for the first time after 12 years, arranging a finals duel with defending champion De La Salle-College of Saint Benilde.
Starring for Letran was the sophomore-rookie tandem of Judiel Nitura and Gia Maquilang as well as team captain in libero Lara Mae Silva.
Nitura poured in 23 points anchored on 21 attacks, one block, and one ace while Maquilang churned out 22 markers and 16 excellent receptions. Silva, on the other hand, grabbed a whopping 40 digs to man the floor defense.
Dropping the first two sets momentarily took the momentum away from the Lady Knights, but they regrouped just in time in the deciding frame to crawl back from an 11-8 deficit.
Maquilang served up an ace to deliver the match point at 14-11 while a Nitura kill from the opposite wing put the nail in the coffin as the Lady Knights continued their Cinderella run.
Letran head coach Oliver Almadro shared he didn't even make a promise to the Letran management to bring the squad back to the finals, but as they exceeded expectations the Lady Knights are tipped to make the most out of it.
"Sabi ko nga 'yung Final Four medyo mahirap na eh kasi wala naman akong drastic addition sa team aside from the one rookie. Sabi lang sa amin, kung umabot na tayo ng Final Four, masaya na," Almadro said.
"And sabi ko I cannot promise it this year so sabi nila sige i-rebuild ko muna."
(I told them that the Final Four is harder because there is not that much addition aside from one rookie. They just told us that if we reach the Final Four, we're happy. I told them, I cannot promise it this year so they said I should just rebuild.)
The Lady Pirates, on the other hand, failed to make their back-to-back finals appearances despite huge outings from Joan Doguna, Johna Dolorito, and Jaja Tulang.
—JKC, GMA Integrated News
