AFTER a 15-day break, National U just shrugged off the cobwebs and came back swinging.
The Lady Bulldogs pounced on twice-to-beat-seeking University of Santo Tomas through a hardfought 23-25, 25-17, 25-18, 20-25, 15-9 decision to close out the UAAP Season 87 women's volleyball elimination round on Sunday at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.
This also marks the defending champions' fifth consecutive victory over the Golden Tigresses since the second round of prelims play last year in Season 86.
Bella Belen had herself an MVP-caliber takeover in the home stretch to foil UST’s last-gasp fightback with a herculean triple-double of 26 points, 16 digs, and 13 receptions.
As such, the Golden Tigresses will have vie for the No. 2 seed in a one-game playoff with La Salle on Apr. 30 (Wednesday), 2 p.m. at the Mall of Asia Arena.
NU-UST heavyweight bout
The elims finale rode on a recurring theme for the most part: strong starts equated to set wins.
UST went on a 7-1 charge early in the opening frame and negated a late National U comeback through a self-inflicted service error from Alyssa Solomon.
Then came the next two sets where the Lady Bulldogs fired identical 8-2 starts which proved too much to overcome for the Golden Tigresses.
The only twist to the story came in the fourth set, as Reg Jurado & Co. overturned NU’s 8-4 start with a 9-4 counter and a 5-1 set-clinching blitz to force sudden death.
Once the No. 2 seed has been decided in three days’ time, the Final Four will go underway on May 3 (Saturday) with the exact same matchups from last year: twice-to-beat NU squaring off with Far Eastern University and UST duking it out with La Salle for the third straight season.
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