MANILA, Philippines – Cebu’s Southwestern University warded off Far Eastern University’s spirited fightback in the fifth set as the Lady Cobras scored an impressive 27-29, 30-28, 25-21, 25-19, 15-13 victory Thursday night in the Shakey’s V-League Season 8 first conference at The Arena in San Juan City.

The Lady Cobras thought they already had the game in the bag after taking leads of 7-2 and 12-7 on Danika Gendrauli’s power plays in the final set.

But the Lady Tamaraws fought back ferociously and eventually forged a 13-all deadlock.

Showing they were up to the challenge, the Lady Cobras regrouped, coming through with a perfect set up for Princess Pido to put the team at match point in the next play, before Gendrauli finally silenced the FEU crowd with a thunderous hit.

SWU coach Jordan Paca admitted the pressure of playing before a boisterous FEU crowd nearly cost them their first win in two games in Group B.

It was an energy-draining battle all throughout especially in the first and second sets as both squads needed a total of 232 points to finish. But it was the Lady Cobras who showed the poise and composure in the end to emerge victorious in the two-hour and 15-minute contest.

It was the second time SWU beat FEU, the first being last year in this same conference won by University of Santo Tomas.

Pido finished with 20 points, while Gendrauli and Danalie Baquiro had 19 and 11 as SWU bounced back from its four-set loss to Lyceum on Tuesday.

Four players scored in double figures for the Lady Tamaraws who fell short of completing their comeback from a 2-1 set down – no thanks to their woeful 39 errors. FEU fell to 0-2.

Francis Santiago, Manila Bulletin