ADAMSON battled back from an early deficit and pounced on University of Santo Tomas’ late errors to hack out a pulsating 23-25, 25-23, 19-25, 25-23, 15-13 victory on Thursday and move a step closer to bagging third place in the Shakey’s V-League at the Mall of Asia Arena in Pasay.
Shiela Pineda shone brightest by scoring the winning point and emerging as the top scorer along with guest player Angela Benting with 23 makers each as the Falcons prevailed in Game One of the race-to-two series.
Game Two is set at 1 p.m. on Sunday also at the MOA Arena.
“Sobrang intense,” Pineda, a 21-year-old customs administration student. “Nawawalan kami sa blockings kaya tumagal rin yung game.”
The Tigresses led two sets to one, and moved on the verge of pulling off the win by erecting a 23-20 cushion in the fourth set until they saw the Lady Falcons, motivated by their grueling semifinals loss to National Universty, score five unanswered points to force the decider.
“Dito na lang kami bumabawi kasi grabe yung hirap namin nung kalaban namin NU eh. Para magkaroon kami ng lakas, yun na lang iniisip namin na sayang yung nanngyari sa NU kaya dito kami babawi sa UST,” said Pineda, whose team went through two five-set battles before losing to NU in the deciding Game Three.
After Maika Ortiz scored a running spike to knot the count at 12, the Lady Falcons put the game to bed by scoring the next three points on two UST turnovers and the capper by Pineda. Ortiz had a team-high 18 points.
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