The Far Eastern University Tamaraws took advantage of the miscues of the National University Bulldogs, securing the series lead in the semifinals of the 2018 Premier Volleyball League Collegiate Conference, 21-25, 25-22, 25-17, 25-23, Saturday morning at the FilOil Flying V Centre.
Rookie Mark Calado showed up for the Morayta-based side with 16 points, 13 coming from attacks along with two blocks and a service ace. Former skipper Jp Bugaoan and current captain RJ Paler finished with 13 points apiece.
Despite the loss in the preliminaries, head coach Rey Diaz believes that the postseason is a different thing and his Tamaraws simply need to correct their mistakes from that game.
“Napakalaking challenge yung binigay nung pagkatalo namin,” he said. “Hindi negative yung tingin namin sa pagkatalo, kundi first attempt towards learning.”
FEU did just that and moved on from that game, and executed their game plan better. The Bulldogs took the upper hand in the scoring skills, but the Tams’ persistence on defense forced the former into several miscues.
After losing the opening set late on errors, the green-shirts stepped up on defense both at the net and on the floor to capture the next two sets.
The Tamaraws used that momentum to propel them to a convincing third set win anchored on a 21-11 lead, and they finally closed it out in the fourth despite the 22-point showing of NU’s Bryan Bagunas.
When asked for a turning point, Diaz felt there was none. “Yung NU kasi champion team, so dapat lang laging all-out,” he emphasized.
FEU will try to do this all over again and close out the series, tomorrow, Sunday at 11 am.
The Scores:
FEU 3 – Calado 16, Bugaoan 13, Paler 13, Bautista 8, Quiel 6, Silang 3, De Asis 1, Suarez 0, Laganina 0, Lorenzo L, Barrica L.
NU 1 – Bagunas 22, Almendras 13, Gampong 8, Saura 6, Malabunga 6, Natividad 5, Dayandante 2, Ancheta 0, Marcos L, Sunagui L.
