THE Adamson Lady Falcons and the University of Santo Tomas (UST) Golden Tigresses clash in a do-or-die stepladder semifinals first phase match of the UAAP Season 88 women's volleyball tournament at the Araneta Coliseum Wednesday.
Gametime between the No. 3 seed Adamson and the No. 4 UST is set at 3 p.m., succeeding the Final Four matches in the men's division.
Twice-to-beat and top seed Far Eastern University face No. 4 Ateneo de Manila to open the game day at 11 a.m.
Likewise armed with a win-once incentive, six-peat-seeking and No. 2 seed National University eye a Finals return as it takes on No. 3 University of Santo Tomas at 1 p.m.
The winner between the Lady Falcons and the Tigresses advance to the second phase of the stepladder semis, where they will face the defending champs NU Lady Bulldogs in another knockout match.
The winner of that battle enter the Finals to face the De La Salle Lady Spikers, who swept the eliminations at 14-0 to claim an outright championship round berth and create a stepladder semis among the second to fourth seed teams.
The Lady Falcons secured a semis berth on April 18 after denying the FEU Lady Tamaraws, 25-20, 25-22, 25-23, finishing the eliminations with a 3-game win run for a 9-5 record and making the Final Four for the first time in three years.
Having enjoyed a 10-day break, Adamson also brings confidence as it swept UST in the eliminations, 2-0.
Led by the presumptive MVP Shaina Nitura, the Lady Falcons stopped the Tigresses in the first round, 27-25, 25-22, 25-12, on March 7 and in the second, 27–25, 25–20, 26–24, on April 11.
Adamson head coach JP Yude said that effort and hard work is the name of the game for his team.
“I’m also very happy with how we’ve been in close games against different teams every match. We’re taking it one game at a time and one team at a time. We really just keep working on it every time," said Yude.
"Like I told them, we work things out and we work hard every time. They just need to put in the work during training, and leave the results to God, because we don’t have control over that — but we do control our effort and hard work every time.”
Meanwhile, UST needed and extra game to secure the last semis berth, beating FEU in a playoff for No. 4 last Saturday, 16-25, 25-20, 25-18, 25-16.
The Tigresses and the Lady Tamaraws finished the eliminations with identical 8-6 cards and thus the playoff for No. 4.
UST head coach Shaq Delos Santos said that his team will use its two losses to Adamson in the elimination as a source of motivation in a bid to win another knockout match.
“We’ll probably draw strength from our two games against Adamson, and we’ll study more what we need to improve. In those two games, we really struggled on our side, aside from Adamson performing very well, especially knowing how strong their ace players are," said Delos Santos.
"For us, it’s about how we can fix the team again, especially with the stepladder round about to start. We’ll focus first on improving our serve-receive, and then making our attacks more consistent, because that’s really where we get our points.”
