MANILA, Philippines — Confusion emerged in the endgame between the De La Salle Lady Spikers and the National University Lady Bulldogs in the UAAP Season 88 women's volleyball tournament at the Mall of Asia Arena Sunday.
La Salle clinched the 27-25, 15-25, 23-25, 25-23, 15-13 win for the 14-0 elimination round sweep and an outright Finals berth after a net touch infraction by NU's Arah Panique in the fifth set.
How did it lead to that verdict when four touches was initially called on La Salle?
Indeed, four touches were called on La Salle but Coach Ramil De Jesus challenged for a block touch on NU, which was unsuccessful.
However, the review referee spotted another NU infraction -- this time a net touch on Panique before the supposed fourth touch on Shane Retarta. The infraction was not spotted in real time.
This prompted the video referee to bring it up to the first referee, who then used his referee's challenge. The review showed that Panique's forearm touched the net first, indeed, even before Angel Canino made the third touch.
Hence, the final verdict was a Panique net touch and a La Salle victory instead of a 14-deadlock.
The official sequence thus follows: a dig by Mikole Reyes, a Pia Rodriguez set that didn't cross the net, the missed Panique net touch, the supposed Canino 'third' ball, and Reterta's 'fourth' ball.
The ball was still live when Panique touched the net, resulting in her violation as explained by UAAP volleyball commissioner Mike Verano.
"The initial call by the referee—our first referee—was four touches. So the De La Salle coach, Ramil, automatically challenged the call for a block touch to be sure. Upon review by the video challenge referee, there was no block touch. However, there was a net touch—another infraction," said Verano.
"This information was then relayed to our first referee: no block touch, challenge unsuccessful, but there was another infraction, which was a net touch by NU. So our first referee requested a referee’s challenge to review the call, and that’s what came out. The final decision was a net touch.
"If you look at the video, the initial infraction is what gets called. When the arm hit the net, the ball was still in play, and La Salle had not yet touched it for the fourth contact—so it was still a live ball. Therefore, the first infraction was the net touch. That explains the chaos earlier."
