THE UST Junior Golden Tigresses avenged their qualifier loss with a 23-25, 25-13, 27-25, 25-21 drubbing of Hope Christian School to claim the inaugural UST Invitational Volleyball tournament title at the UST Padre Noval court Sunday.
Renee Penafiel connected on an off-speed hit that gave UST the title.
Tied at 25-all, UST scored two-straight hits courtesy of a service ace by Regina Jurado and a running hit by Janna Torres to close in on the title.
Jurado led the Junior Tigresses with 19 points, including four out of eight UST aces while Torres chipped in 14 markers.
Hope’s Irah Jaboneta and Francis Mycah Go finished with 11 points apiece
“Malaking tulong yung service aces namin kasi extra points. Nandoon na rin yung blockings. Once na-retrieve namin yung bola, nakakapag-set kami and nakakapag-atake,” UST assistant coach Yani Fernandez told the Varsitarian.
Penafiel was hailed tournament MVP while UST’s Bernadette Pepito and Tanya Narciso were awarded the best digger and best setter awards, respectively.
In boys’ play, however, the Junior Tiger Spikers crashed to fourth place after succumbing to the Team B pool of the Nazareth School of National University in a tight 16-25, 25-19, 21-25, 25-15, 17-19 nail-biter.
With the game tied at 17-all, the Bullpups scored two points courtesy of Jhone Tugas’ block and a UST error to seal bronze.
UST’s Lorenz Señoron scored five points in an 8-4 run that forced a deciding set, 25-15.
Mark Andrei Manalo led NU with 14 points while Señoron led all scorers with 16.
