MANILA, Philippines (UPDATED) – The Far Eastern University (FEU) Lady Tamaraws are on track to clinching the second seed as they defeated the National University (NU) Lady Bulldogs in 4 sets, 25-21, 25-22, 16-25, 25-20, on Sunday, April 15, at the Mall of Asia Arena. 

NU’s back-to-back errors gave the momentum to FEU, as the Lady Tamaraws closed out the game with a 5-0 run capped off by captain Bernadeth Pons’ attack.

The Lady Tamaraws ended the elimination round with a 10-4 record, while the Lady Bulldogs finished with 7-7 – their only second round win coming from their match against the University of the East. 

FEU will clinch a twice-to-beat advantage if Ateneo de Manila University loses to defending champion De La Salle University.

Pons led the Lady Tamaraws with 17 points while making 16 excellent digs.

Jaja Santiago topscored for the Lady Bulldogs with 21 points off 15 spikes and 6 blocks.

NU had a strong start, leading all the way up to the second technical timeout. Celine Domingo scored 3 straight points to tie the score at 17-all and Chinchin Basas’ ace edged out NU by one.

As FEU locked down the Lady Bulldogs and raced to set point, 24-19, a net touch error almost gave away the momentum. But Audrey Paran’s service error gifted FEU with the 1-0 match advantage.

The Lady Tamaraws led all the way in the second set with a 5-1 run to punctuate their lead, 18-11. NU rallied back to cut the deficit to one capped off by an Aiko Urdas ace, 20-21. FEU pulled away again to make it a 2-0 lead in the match.

FEU failed to sweep the match as they blew the lead with NU’s 8-1 run that was stopped by a Roma Doromal error. A crucial net touch by FEU gave the 3rd set to NU.

The Scores:

FEU (3) – Pons 17, Domingo 12, Basas 9, Villareal 8, Guino-o 6, Negrito 6, Hernandez 2, Malabanan 2, Carandang 1.

NU (1) – Santiago 21, Singh 10, Sato 8, Urdas 8, Doromal 6, Paran 3, Doria 2.

– Rappler.com