MANILA -- University of Santo Tomas (UST) overcame a gritty Adamson University, 25-21, 20-25, 23-25, 25-22, 15-6, to take a bounce-back win in the UAAP Season 85 men's volleyball tournament, Wednesday at the PhilSports Arena in Pasig City.

The Tiger Spikers rose to the second spot at 3-1, just half a game behind National University (NU), while the Soaring Falcons remained winless after four meetings.

GBoy De Vega caught fire in the last three sets to pace UST with middle blocker Raynier Flor dominating at the net to bag the victory.

De Vega finished with 16 points, including the match-clinching kill, while fellow wingers Jay Dela Noche and Josh Ybañez ended with game-high 24 and 20 markers, respectively.

However, the Tiger Spikers needed to make major adjustments in order to grab the win.

"The boys lost focus in the second set," coach Odjie Mamon admitted. "Story of our life -- service error, attack error ni GBoy, tapos may time na disadvantaged kami sa tawag. Actually dapat hindi 'yun bearing.

"They are the ones playing on the court, pino-point lang namin, nasa labas kami so wide 'yung nakikita namin. Kinailangan pang mag-time out eh. Kaya more focused pa rin kami sa internal, sa system namin," he added.

The Tiger Spikers leaned on their service game at the start of the match, using opportunities in the transition to scoring against the Soaring Falcons. Errors late in the set kept Adamson in the game, but back-to-back plays at the middle closed the frame for UST.

Both sides made adjustments in the second, but the season hosts got the better of the result. Adamsontook advantage of UST's errors, eventually, leading to more varied plays including a middle kill from Joshua Mangalaman that sent the former to the set point and the equalizer.

The Golden Spikers imploded in the third set, coughing out error after error that totaled 13. The Soaring Falcons then used this fuel to get its offense going with captain Jude Aguilar and Dan Gutierrez, who came off the bench.

UST ended up with a whopping 49 errors in the contest.

Aguilar paced the Falcons with 15 points on 13 attacks, and Gutierrez added eight markers to go with four excellent receptions.