MANILA, Philippines — De La Salle University hacked out a hard-earned 25-18, 25-20, 20-25, 20-25, 17-15, marathon victory over archrival Ateneo de Manila University to clinch a semifinal ticket in the 2024 Shakey's Super League Collegiate Pre-season Championship at the Rizal Memorial Coliseum.

The Lady Spikers displayed nerves of steel in a nip-and-tuck fifth set, saving two match points before Amie Provido provided the game-clinching kill block following a costly Blue Eagles error to seal the win in the three-hour, two-minute thriller.

Angel Canino fired 17 points with 15 coming from kills, Shevana Laput scored five of her 16 markers in the deciding frame while Provido finished with 13 points anchored on seven spikes, three aces and three kill blocks for unbeaten La Salle, which avoided the use of its twice-to-beat advantage.

Katrina Del Castillo added 11 points highlighted by five kill blocks.

The Lady Spikers will face in the knockout semis set Wednesday the survivor between University of Santo Tomas and University of the East, still playing as of press time.

La Salle came back from a 5-7 deficit early in the fifth set and engaged Ateneo in a furious back-and-forth exchange. Winger Lyann De Guzman pushed the Blue Eagles at match point advantage, 14-13, but Sophia Buena overcooked her pressure-packed service for the first deuce.

De Guzman put Ateneo back on top before Jyne Soreno knotted it again at 15.

AC Miner committed an attack error in the next play and Provido shut the door on De Guzman as La Salle escaped with its seventh straight win in the tournament.

"Nu'ng last two sets medyo nawalan kami ng composure kaya pinaalalahanan kami ng mga coaches na gumalaw sa galaw namin and bummalik kami sa sistema," Provido said.

De Guzman got all her 17 points from spikes while Buena had 12 markers for Ateneo, which was relegated to the classification round. TMT