The De La Salle-College of Saint Benilde (DLS-CSB) Blazers and Lady Blazers scorched the San Beda University (SBU) Red Spikers and Lady Red Spikers, respectively, both 3-0, on May 17 at the Emilio Aguinaldo College (EAC) Gym in Manila City.

The Lady Blazers wasted no time asserting control over the pesky Lady Red Spikers, whom they outlasted in a five-set saga during the first round. After conceding the first point, Benilde swiftly surged to a 16-7 lead midway through courtesy of team captain Mycah Go, who tallied 9 of her 13 points early. San Beda managed to trim down the advantage, but two costly errors fueled a closing 6-1 run to hand the Lady Blazers the opening set, 25-17.

Zam Nolasco imposed her presence during a much tighter second set as she powered through 7 points to help the Taft squad pull away, 25-19. The ladies in red came out swinging in the third set, racing to an early 1-5 lead before Benilde clawed back. With Clydel Catarig shifting the momentum in the Lady Blazers’ favor, back-to-back points by Cristy Ondangan and late errors by San Beda’s Angel Habacon set up finishing blows from Nolasco and Go to put away the sweep, 25-18.

Meanwhile, the Red Spikers roughly put the Blazers in a nip-and-tuck affair. After opening the match with a clean kill from Rocky Motol, Benilde got off on the wrong foot and proved to have met their match with an 8-15 lead in favor of San Beda. But, a comeback dispensed by consecutive hits from Jacob Herrera and Motol closed the gap, switching the gears for the players in green and white to seal the first set, 25-23.

From there on out, the Blazers took the reins with a 7-point lead by the next set. Despite nearly dropping the game momentum with a series of errors, Raymark Betco stepped to the plate with successful plays on offense and defense, 26-24.

The Spikers heeded to their deficit and edged out the Blazers from a quick victory with a back-and-forth game. A trade-off of points at the 20-20 mark started a gruelling neck-on-neck race to the end. Ultimately, a salvatory dig from Motol cleared out an opening for Herrera to finish off with a bang, 25-23.

The Benilde Blazers and Lady Blazers will face the Colegio de San Juan de Letrán (CSJL) Knights and Lady Knights on May 21 with a live telecast on the NCAA Philippines Facebook and YouTube pages.

Set Scores:

Blazers: 25-23, 26-24, 25-23

Lady Blazers: 25-17, 25-19, 25-18