ESPAÑA and Taft are no strangers to the UAAP women’s volleyball playoff stage.
Season 87 will be the third straight Final Four meeting between the Golden Tigresses and the Lady Spikers.
When it comes to these two teams, the last three occasions were won by the higher seed that had the semis incentive — University of Santo Tomas twice (Seasons 81 and 86) and La Salle once (Season 85).
Before the semis goes underway, there’s still a tie to break for the perennial title contenders.
In an encore of Season 81 six years ago, UST and La Salle will close out the seeding race in a one-game playoff to determine which team takes the No. 2 seed and the coveted twice-to-beat advantage ahead of their Final Four duel on Saturday.
Worth nothing in this regard is how the two teams split their elimination round head-to-head record as UST took Round 1 and La Salle won Round 2 — both being five-set contests.
Deja vu for UST?
But what went down the last time these two schools met in a one-game playoff before taking on each other in the Final Four?
For UST, Sisi Rondina and Eya Laure happened.
The eventual MVP-ROY duo that season combined for 46 points to clinch the No. 2 seed for the first time in eight years.
After a decade, it was through España’s duo that forced the Taft towers to settle outside the top two places.
Armed with an incentive it never had for nearly a decade at the time, the Golden Tigresses made the most of its first shot at a historic breakthrough.
Laure unleashed her UAAP career-high 25 points to deny La Salle what has rather been a routinary trip to the championship round.
It would mark a bitter farewell for graduating team captain Des Cheng who had 10 markers in the loss behind then-rookie ace Jolina dela Cruz’ 12.
This time around, the black-and-gold have the likes of Angge Poyos and Reg Jurado up front while the green-and-white will parade its top guns Angel Canino and Shevana Laput.
UST will be eager to replicate its Season 81 pathway to the finals while La Salle hopes to turn the page on the semis loss that busted its 10-year streak of reaching the UAAP finals.
The playoff for No. 2, a prelude to Saturday’s Final Four, is on Apr. 30 (Wednesday), 2 p.m. at the Mall of Asia Arena.
