I thought our floor defense was better than it was against UST in that second round loss. However, it was in the blocking where our team was not so consistent. Although we did have our share of offensive blocks (against Santiago whose quick plays were blocked a number of times, Banaticla who was blocked on successive plays), the defensive wall put up by our net blockers was not as solid due to the variety of sets employed by UST. Recognizing that our net defenders are very effective in close quarters, Dimaculangan would set up her spikers a foot or two away from the net, and this gave them better angles to target gaps or avoid our blockers.

Carmel Garbin showed that she is a worthy successor to Kaye when Kaye plays our her eligibility, but her lack of match play showed. Yup, Joanne was not able to score too much on blocks. The players will also have to improve communication and teamwork, particularly since UST likes to target the gap between the back line defenders, and the players sometimes pause or hesitate in retrieving the ball because a teammate is close by. This hesitancy cost us several points, particularly in the 4th set when we had a chance to rally at 19-21, and we dropped 2 consecutive points because of this type of error.

In their last elimination round match, the Lady Spikers absorbed its first loss of the season today as they fall to the UST Tigresses 25-23, 20-25, 28-26, 16-25, 12-15. Despite this setback, the team still remains on top of the standings and will have the twice-to-beat advantage in the semis.

Nice game, UST deserved the win because they were steadier in the endgame. Some uncertainty crept into the Lady Spikers’ game, and that resulted in their play being less sharp and aggressive as they were in the past. Not to take anything away from UST, but those last 2 service reception errors were definitely unforced errors, balls which our team should have fielded cleanly. And the serve continued to be a double edged sword, netting us some quick points but also giving some away, but what hurt was that they occurred in the 4th and 5th sets. Perhaps the team just wanted the win too much. That loss was a bump on the road to the championship.