THE UST Tiger Spikers punctuated their dominance of the first round, trouncing the University of the Philippines (UP) squad, 22-25, 25-21, 25-20, 25-22, last January 13 at The Arena, San Juan.
UST finished the eliminations tied with the Far Eastern University with a similar 6-1 win-lose slate.
John Paul Torres and Henry Pecaña delivered 22 and 14 attack points, respectively, to help UST conquer the Maroons.
“Though we now lead the standings, with one loss, I am still not contented with the team’s level of performance,” coach Emil Lontoc said. “But we are eagerly preparing for the second round to improve our game.”
In the opening canto, UP pulled away from a 14-all deadlock courtesy of Lloyd Arden Belgado’s spike and Michael Arda’s finisher.
UST exacted revenge in the second set with back-to-back, down-the-line assaults from Jayson Ramos, 19-12. They were followed by Torres’ angled crosscourt and back-row attacks to end the set 25-21 for the Tigers. The succeeding sets ended similarly, 24-20, 24-21, with Torres and Henry Pecaña providing the ammunition for the black-gold-white army.
Dominico Lucindo topscored for UP with 17 points.
In their previous game, the Tiger Spikers easily disposed of the National University in straight-sets, 25-19, 25-20, 25-21, at the San Juan Arena minus Depante, who missed the game due to foot injury.
Prior to that, UST walloped the University of the East (27-25, 25-18, 25-15) last December 19, three days after losing against archrival FEU (23-25, 25-21, 25-27, 20-25). The debacle kept the Spikers from a first round sweep.
Women’s action
In women’s play, the UST Lady Spikers walloped the Adamson University Lady Falcons, 18-25, 25-20, 25-23, 25-15, last January 13 to create a three-way tie with the Lady Falcons and Ateneo de Manila University at second place. They had identical 5-2 slates win-lose records.
“I am happy with their performance so far, but I am still hoping to see them deliver better plays,” coach Cesael delos Santos said.
The relentless attacks of Aiza Maizo, Maruja Banaticla, and Angeli Tabaquero gave UST a whopping 12-point advantage in the final set, ending the game at 22-10.
Despite a sluggish start in the first set which gave Adamson the set at 18-25, the Lady Spikers woke up from their slumber in the second canto with a 3-0 run, bolstered by a string of offensive errors on the side of Adamson, 11-5. Maizo pushed UST at set point with a drop shot before Lady Falcon Gustilo’s misreception capped the set at 25-20.
The veteran Maizo led the charge for UST with an array of kills in the third set, 15-11, but a series of attack errors allowed Adamson to come within, 24-22. But a kill from Tabaquero shut the door for the Falcons, 25-23. UST never looked back as a Tabaquero, Banaticla and Santiago combined to give UST the final set with a 25-15 whitewashing.
Maizo topscored for UST with an impressive 23 points while Tabaquero chalked up 18 points for the UST army. Benting led Adamson with 18 points.
In their previous games, the Lady Spikers crushed UE, 25-2, 25-15, 25-8, last January 9. However, the Lady Spikers succumbed to Ateneo, 30-32, 23-25, 25-8, 25-19, 15-17, in a hard-fought match last December 19. They preyed on the National University Lady Bulldogs, 25-10, 25-14, 25-13.
