But the Lady Bulldogs needed to check their endgame foldup in the second and fourth frames on erratic plays then leaned on Jaja Santiago, Risa Sato and Jorelle Singh to thwart the Lady Maroons’ determined fightback, hack out the 92-minute victory and close out their quarterfinals campaign with a 4-1 card. Back in the V-League, NU actually dominated UP in spikes (60-46), blocks (9-2) and service (10-3) but the Lady Maroons just kept on coming back from huge deficits with their never-say-die spirit, stunning the Lady Bulldogs on a strong finish to steal the opening set. NU led by 10 early in the second but UP rallied on Diana Carlos and Katherine Bersola’s hits, and aided by the Lady Bulldogs’ miscues, the Lady Maroons threatened at 19-22. The Lady Bulldogs broke away from a tight third set duel by rattling off three straight points to gain a 23-17 cushion but the Lady Maroons strung up four straight hits and took thee of the next four to force a 24-all count. But UP won the next two points before Singh produced back-to-back crosscourt spikes and Nabor opted to swipe the ball instead of setting up their hitters that caught the Lady Maroons by surprise.

Source: Manila Times August 29, 2016 13:07 UTC