NATIONAL University secured a Top Two finish, and a twice-to-beat advantage in the UAAP Season 86 women's volleyball semifinals, by taking down Far Eastern University, 25-21, 25-19, 25-22, on Wednesday at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.
Alyssa Solomon stood out with 13 points built on 12 attacks and one block as the Lady Bulldogs swept their seven second-round matches to head to the Final Four with a lot of momentum.
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The Lady Bulldogs' win also turned the elimination-round finale between semifinalists La Salle and University of Sto. Tomas on Saturday into a toss-up on which team will get the second twice-to-beat spot.
"Modesty aside, siguro medyo nasa tamang timing lang kami. Tuma-timing lang kami du'n sa pag-angat ng performance namin but hindi kami pwedeng mag-relax. Kailangan pa rin naming ingatan kung hanggang kailan namin ma-susustain 'yung magandang condition — hindi lang sa skills kundi sa physical (condition) din nila," said NU head coach Norman Miguel.
"Ang mindset namin, after this last game of elimination (round), du'n pa lang mag-sstart 'yung talagang laban and we have all been waiting for na makabalik ulit sa finals," he added.
Solomon & Co. rose to the occasion in their prelims finale and twice-to-beat clincher with vital scoring contributions from MVP frontrunner Bella Belen (12 points), sophomore ace Vange Alinsug (11 points) and team captain Erin Pangilinan (10 points).
Ace libero Shaira Jardio repelled the Lady Tamaraws' offense with 16 receptions and 11 digs as Lams Lamina's 14 excellent sets sealed what would be the Lady Bulldogs' seventh straight victory en route to the semifinal round.
There's still all to play for in the last day of preliminaries action as the final placements could go down to head-to-head records. In such a case, NU will take the top seed with a La Salle win over UST but will drop to second place with a UST win over La Salle.
NU won in four sets versus La Salle in Round 2 whereas La Salle took five sets to outlast NU in Round 1. Meanwhile, NU similarly took a four-sets win over UST in Round 2 but dropped its season-opening Round 1 match to UST in three sets.
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