Tiger Spikers survive Soaring Falcons in five sets
By Rob Andrew Dongiapon
In spite of an error-plagued outing, the UST Tiger Spikers (3–1) withstood the brave stand of the Adamson Soaring Falcons (0–4) in five sets, 25–21, 20–25, 23–25, 25–22, 15–6, in the UAAP Season 85 men’s volleyball tournament, Wednesday morning, at the Philsports Arena in Pasig.
After a relatively dominant first set, the Tiger Spikers found themselves on a 1–2 hole in sets as the Soaring Falcons pounced on UST’s lackluster defense and costly errors.
Errors were a huge factor in the matchup as the Soaring Falcons enjoyed 13 opponent errors in both the third and fourth set. Additionally, all of Adamson’s points in the fifth and final set came off UST’s errors.
In total, the Tiger Spikers wound up with 49 errors in the game — a far cry from the Soaring Falcons’ 16.
Despite the error-plagued output, the Tiger Spikers leaned on their attacks throughout, turning it up a notch when it mattered the most as Josh Ybanez, Jay Rack De La Noche, and Rey De Vega converged to lift UST out of a set disadvantage.
De La Noche led the charge with 24 points off 17 attacks, while Ybanez fired 21 off 19 attacks, and De Vega tallied 16 markers.
The Tiger Spikers finished with a total of 70 attacks in the match, while the Soaring Falcons only had 38.
On the brink of a loss after conceding four-point leads on both technical timeouts, UST improved in the final stretch of the fourth set as their attacks proved to be too much for the Soaring Falcons, ending the frame on a 13–6 blast that turned ito a 25–22 edge for UST.
It was all Tiger Spikers from there as the Falcons failed to find a mark in the final set, only relying on UST’s errors to end the match, 15–6.
The Tiger Spikers look to keep their place in the winning column as they face the UP Fighting Maroons next in the same venue on Saturday.
