UST Tigresses within the UAAP Season 87 girls’s volleyball event sport towards Ateneo Blue Eagles. –UAAP PHOTO
College of Santo Tomas (UST) earned a second straight victory to not solely keep on observe for a Last 4 spot within the UAAP Season 87 girls’s volleyball event but in addition distance itself from its three-game slide.
Groove again? In a manner. However chief playmaker Cassie Carballo is taking the group’s gradual rise with guarded optimism.
“We nonetheless have loads of lapses,” she mentioned on Saturday after UST’s 25-15, 26-24, 26-24 sweep of Ateneo long-established at Good Araneta Coliseum in Quezon Metropolis.
The Tigresses appear to have rediscovered the identical mettle that introduced them to final yr’s championship duel, however Carballo is aware of there’s far more the squad can nonetheless flaunt.
“[W]e additionally haven’t proven the whole lot we’ve acquired. This win’s large for us, and I simply hope that we will convey [our good habits in this game] into the subsequent.”
With the triumph, final yr’s bridesmaids additionally remained eligible for twice-to-beat safety within the playoffs.
However the Tigresses, who improved to 7-4 general, want to take issues slowly.
“We simply return to our goal, which is entering into the Last 4,” Cassie Carballo mentioned.
“We’re taking issues a sport at a time, particularly having struggled by dropping three straight video games. I’m simply grateful we’ve been again within the win column,” she added, following a efficiency the place she logged 17 wonderful units and 5 factors, two coming off blocks.
After dropping to defending champion Nationwide College, Far Jap U and powerhouse La Salle consecutively, the Tigresses lastly managed to string back-to-back victories, their first since a five-game profitable streak through the opening spherical of the season.
However to maintain that run going, head coach KungFu Reyes mentioned that UST ought to go above and past their standard performances in the event that they intend to lock down a playoff berth and provides themselves an opportunity at tabbing that extremely coveted Last 4 bonus.
“We have to overachieve what we’ve been doing proper now. Additionally, all the learnings we’ve had in that three-game slide? We will’t let go of these,” he mentioned.
Angge Poyos top-scored for UST with 16 factors. Reg Jurado and Marga Altea chipped in 10 every into the trouble that put the España-based squad a notch above No. 4 Woman Tamaraws.
La Salle triumphs
Altea’s rise can be essential for UST, which entered the season on excessive hopes, solely to be deflated by accidents to key gamers early on.
“I’m simply joyful as a result of I’ve been engaged on my sport throughout coaching, and my efforts simply confirmed itself on this sport,” mentioned Altea.
“Whether or not it’s on either side of the wing, left or proper, exterior or reverse, Marga can play it,” Reyes mentioned.
Ateneo drew 13 factors from AC Miner and 12 from skipper Lyann de Guzman, however the loss—their second this week after bowing to their archnemesis Woman Spikers final Wednesday—pushed them all the way down to 4-7 within the race.
Like Carballo, Angel Canino felt La Salle continues to be a piece in progress.
”I couldn’t say that is our peak,” the Woman Spikers ace mentioned following a 25-22, 25-13, 25-23 dismantling of listless College of the East within the later sport.
“I really feel we’re exhibiting one thing new [each game] and we’re joyful for that. On the identical time, we’re additionally reaching for extra. We consider we’ve far more to indicate,” she added.
Three days faraway from sweeping Ateneo, La Salle drew key contributions from its unheralded gamers as soon as once more, this time from Jill Santos and Amie Provido, whose 9 and 6 factors, respectively, helped propel the Taft-based squad to a 3rd straight win.
“This win is essential for us within the sense that that is the place our different teammates will draw confidence going into the opponent, the subsequent time we take the court docket,” Canino identified.
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“This tells our underutilized teammates they’re succesful,” she added.
