73rd UAAP Volleyball: UST, DLSU complete Finals casts

Monday, 21 February 2011 16:30 Diego de la Paz

The field has been further narrowed down to two. But for the top seeds, it was no cakewalk.

De La Salle University (DLSU), after nearly coming out unscathed in the elimination round, battled out their second consecutive five-set match to move on to the Finals against University of Santo Tomas (UST) in a women's division dream showcase.

Meanwhile, the UST Growling Tigers had to fight back from a 0-2 deficit to oust the DLSU Green Archers in the men's draw, setting up a widely-anticipated rematch of last year's title series.

The Lady Archers scraped out a hard-earned victory in five (26-24, 21-25, 25-17, 26-28, 15-10) against the hungry Lady Eagles, who had been expected to just lie down and die due to their weak showing as of late.

Stephanie Mercado came out big with 19 points, mostly from 17 spikes, to lead the Green and White squad from Taft. Abigail Maraño and Jacq Alarca each padded their cause with 14 points.

On the blue side of things, Fille Cainglet and Dzi Gervacio each had 19 points in a losing cause for the Lady Eagles.

In the men's division, the Growling Tigers pounced on a fading Green Archer squad (23-25, 20-25, 25-16, 25-16, 15-8) that had dominated the match in the first two sets, and sent the defending champions reeling.

As their previous meetings in the season showed, the more experienced and talented España lineup pulled through to earn the last spot in the FInals.

John Paul Torres hit a game-high 24 points, while Juan Depante made 16 points off 14 spikes to lead the Tigers back to the championship round.

Chris Macasaet and Christopher Antonio each had 14 in the Taft six's losing cause.

Game 1 of the best-of-three Finals series in both the men's and women's divisions will begin on Wednesday with the same protagonists from last year's showdown going head to head. The men's matchup will see UST facing FEU, while DLSU and UST lock horns in the women's draw.

UPCOMING GAMES

February 19, 2011 (Wednesday) - The Filoil Flying V Arena in San Juan

MEN'S FINAL (Game 1)

1:00 p.m. - Santo Tomas vs. Far Eastern

WOMEN'S FINAL (Game 1)

3:00 p.m. - De La Salle vs. Santo Tomas

BOX SCORES:

First game

MEN'S SETS 1 2 3 4 5

Santo Tomas 3 23 20 25 25 15

De La Salle 2 25 25 16 16 8

Second game