Tiger Spikers suffer back-to-back losses against NU
Ernest Martin Tuazon
The UST Tiger Spikers fell to their first losing streak in the UAAP Season 85 men’s volleyball tournament with a four-set defeat against the unblemished NU Bulldogs, 19–25, 25–22, 18–25, 21–25, at the Filoil EcoOil Centre in San Juan on April 26.
Once knotted at 17-all in the fourth and final set, NU went on an 8–4 run to hand the Tiger Spikers their second straight loss and keep their undefeated season alive, 21–25.
With the loss, it is more than likely that a stepladder format in the playoffs will be followed as NU will conclude their campaign against the final four-seeking Ateneo Blue Eagles.
An improvement from their first-round matchup where the Bulldogs swept UST, the Tiger Spikers stole the second set away from their Sampaloc neighbors by returning Jay Rack De La Noche’s seven markers Gboy De Vega’s finishing blow of three consecutive points, 25–22.
With a chance to steal back-to-back sets away from NU, an error-plagued third set from the Tiger Spikers paved the way for Michaelo Buddin and the Bulldogs, who scored seven of his 13 points in the said salvo, 18–25. UST committed 11 costly errors in the set compared to NU’s five free points.
UST began the match with only four total errors, but a 7–2 blast led by the collective efforts of Nico Alemndras, Kennry Malinis, Obed Mukaba, and Buddin lifted the Bulldogs to an early lead over the Tiger Spikers, 19–25.
UST’s lack of size was exposed in their matchup against NU, who blocked 15 attack attempts compared to only one from the Tiger Spikers.
Josh Ybanez, De Vega, and De La Noche combined for 43 Tiger Spikers’ attack points; outside of the three usual hitters for UST, the rest of the team had 10 in total.
The Tiger Spikers look to end their eliminations campaign with a victory as they clash against the also-ran UP Fighting Maroons on Sunday, April 30, at the same venue.
