De La Salle University had to fight tooth and nail a pesky Ateneo De Manila University squad before landing the last spot in the finals following a 26-24, 21-25, 25-17, 26-17, 26-28, 15-10 win Saturday in the 73rd UAAP Women's Volleyball tournament semifinals at the Arena in San Juan.

It was the second straight time that La Salle was driven to the brink of defeat after merely whisking through the double round robin eliminations.

The Lady Spikers, seeing an opportunity in the exhausted Ateneo, pounced on unlucky errors in the decisive set to take a pivotal 7-3 lead before showering the Lady Eagles with succession of quick hits.

Stephanie Mercado punched in 19 points while Abigail Marano and Jacqueline Alarca finished with 14 points apiece for the Lady Spikers, who will face perennial rival University of Santo Tomas in the finals anew next Wednesday.

But admittedly, had Ateneo sustained its intensity on the fifth set, the outcome would have been the opposite.

La Salle played fire with the Lady Eagles, who were determined to snatch the twice-to-beat advantage with a victory, all game long.

“Maybe they (La Salle) thought that with every hit, they could score,” said La Salle head coach Ramil De Jesus, who looked lost for words to describe what went wrong for his squad after the game.

“Ateneo was just waiting for a good opportunity. If you give them the confidence, they will really fight you,” he added.

Lady Spikers managed to claw back to tie the game at 20 in the fourth set after the Lady Eagles opened with 13-6 cushion, but La Salle failed to match Ateneo's vigor in ensuing the scoring rally.

Even in the first set, La Salle took a dip in form and allowed Ateneo to push them to 24-all before scoring on a deuce to take the 1-0 lead.

“We really had a lot of errors and problems with our block and service,” shared De Jesus.

Fille Cainglet collected 19 big points for the Lady Eagles who are once again short in their campaign to longingly put Ateneo in the list of champions in the UAAP.

In the first game, UST shook off a treacherously sluggish start and plowed La Salle, 23-25, 20-25, 25-16, 25-16, 15-8, to also advance to the men's volleyball finals.

Five yellow shirts finished with double digits with John Paul Torres leading the way with 24 points on 19 attacks.

The Tigers will face the Tamaraws in the finals also on Wednesday.

Celest Flores, Phil. Daily Inquirer