Ateneo rookie middle blocker AC Miner brought out her finest performance in the UAAP Season 84 women’s volleyball tournament to keep the Blue Eagles’ back-to-back title hopes alive, Thursday night.
With her team needing one more win to secure a playoff for the final seed, Miner delivered 17 points highlighted by eight kill blocks to lead Ateneo’s 19-25, 25-11, 25-18, 25-19 victory over University of the Philippines at the Mall of Asia Arena.
“What I did in this game, I just thought about how badly we needed to win this game,” said the 21-year-old FEU-D product.
“Aside from natalo nga ‘yung La Salle kanina, we still needed to win this game. Kasi may standard kami, and then hindi pwede magdagdagan losses namin, so going into this game, we just really needed to win, that was our mindset,” she further stressed.
According to Miner, she just did what she had to do to keep her side alive. The 6-foot spiker also revealed that she was surprised upon knowing that she tallied eight huge blocks in the match.
“I was may nagsabi ‘yung nakita ko sa screen, nagulat ako, I had eight blocks.
“I didn’t expect it, I just really had to do what was inside my head, and then I didn’t expect to get eight blocks po,” shared Miner.
Meanwhile, for Ateneo head coach Oliver Almadro, Miner’s performance in tonight’s game did not come as a surprise. After all, he sees the work that her young middle-blocker puts in during practices.
“I’m happy, I’m expecting this from AC, and she’s really working hard sa practices. Pine-preapre niya ‘yung sarili niya, and maganda sa kanya, she follows instructions right away, and hoping, praying for greater things to come from AC,” said Almadro.
“Kailangan lang niya maging smiley. Masyado, tahimik yan, pero ‘yun nga natutuwa ako, and I know that AC will still work hard, di siya matatapos dito, marami pa siya kailangan matutunan, and we hope na mag-improve pa siya.”
—
All UAAP games stream live on GigaPlay presented by Yamaha. Download it now on Android or IOS.
