UE, UP clash in battle of cellar-dwellers

By Anthony Divinagracia Posted Jan 11th 2014

Bottom-feeders University of the East (UE) and University of the Philippines (UP) clash in a virtual match for pride to determine who gets out of the rut as the first round of the 76^th UAAP women’s volleyball tournament winds up.

The Lady Warriors and the Lady Maroons meet in the 2 p.m. curtain-raiser at the San Juan Arena.

UP is currently at the tail-end of the standings with a 0-6 record following its previous defeat against National University, 16-25, 22-25, 14-25, last Wednesday.

With the Lady Bulldogs imposing its vaunted height advantage, the Lady Maroons proved no match offensively and defensively.

Again, none of the Lady Maroons managed to finish in double-figures with Angelie Araneta chalking up nine points. Katherine Bersola and Sheeka Espinosa wound with seven apiece.

So lackluster was UP’s attacking game that the Lady Maroons converted only 24 of 106 kills against the 45 hits of NU.

UE for its part absorbed its fifth straight loss via a heart-breaking 25-23, 15-25, 17-25, 10-25 setback at the hands of Adamson University last Saturday.

Rookie Shaya Adorador was the lone bright spot for UE with 12 points as the Lady Warriors made only 30 kills against Adamson’s 44 while giving up 35 error points.

Whoever prevails goes up at solo seventh place but will still need more push in the second round to dislodge the other teams in the middle of the pack.

The game will air live on Studio 23, BALLS HD 167 and uaapsports.tv with a same day replay at 8 p.m. on BALLS SkyCable channel 34/ Destiny Cable channel 36.