Adamson dethrones UST in women's beach volleyball

By Josiah Albelda Posted Sep 20th 2013

Amanda Villanueva saved her best for last.


Villanueva struggled with errors throughout Game Two but delivered the match-nailing hits to power Adamson University to the 76th UAAP women's beach volleyball tournament championship.

The Lady Falcons dethroned two-peat queens University of Santo Tomas, 21-23, 21-17, 15-8, before a huge crowd on a windy Friday morning at the University of the East Caloocan sand court.


Villanueva teamed up with Tournament MVP Sheila Pineda to thwart the tandem of Maru Banaticla and Pam Lastimosa to sweep their best-of-three finals affair and end the two-year reign of the Tigresses.


Adamson quickly recovered from a slow start behind the service of Pineda, who fired aces left and right as the Lady Falcons took a 14-10 lead in the first set.


But UST leaned on errors by Villanueva, who struggled with her service and attacks as Banaticla sealed it for the Espana-based duo, 23-21.


The Tigresses gathered more steam in the second set as Banaticla and Lastimosa began to heat up and built a 16-12 advantage.


However, Adamson launched a backbreaking 9-1 run to wrest momentum and force a deciding third set with a 21-17 win.


From there, it was an Amanda Villanueva show.


Back-to-back hits from the comely spiker shoved the Lady Falcons ahead, 7-3, before a Villanueva block on Lastimosa made it 9-4 for Adamson.


The Tigresses and the Lady Falcons then traded points before Villanueva nailed it for the San Marcelino-based tandem with two more strikes as they annexed the title, 15-8.


The Lady Falcons bagged their fourth women's crown and sent UST to their first runner-up finish.