Dindin Santiago-Manabat once again shared the court with her former teammates at Chery Tiggo on Saturday night.
But this around, she was sporting a different jersey, wearing the Akari pink and white.
And Santiago-Manabat made sure to make the most out of it, tallying a game-high 26 points on 24 attacks, a block, and an ace in the Chargers’ five-set 16-25, 25-22, 19-25, 25-21, 15-11 victory over the Crossovers at the Filoil EcoOil Centre.
“Masaya kasi parang ngayon ko na lang ulit sila nakasama. Hindi ‘man kami teammates, mag-kalaban, so ayun parang nakakakaba na nakaka-overwhelm kasi ang tagal ko rin silang hindi nakita,” said Santiago-Manabat after the victory.
Santiago-Manabat also hammered down the crucial hits against Chery Tiggo, scoring the team’s 13th point in the fifth set that gave them a four-point spread before converting a down-the-line attack that pushed her side at match point.
The former National University star said that her experience playing with the Crossovers definitely helped especially in the end game of the five-set thriller.
“Siguro, yung iba doon kasi syempre kahit papaano naman six years ko silang nakasama yung iba three years, two years, so parang may mga times akong naiisip na baka ganun pa rin sila,” said Santiago-Manabat.
“Ayun, medyo ganun nga sila ulit, medyo naaano ko pa sa utak ko yung time na nandun pa ako sa kanila,” she added.
Indeed, it was a sweet, sweet victory for the 29-year-old opposite spiker. But what made it more special for Santiago-Manabat is that the victory kept the Chargers alive in the semifinals race.
Akari moved to 2-4 in the standings with five points. They must sweep their remaining matches and hope that F2 Logistics loses its last two games to have a shot at making it to the top four.
“Actually ano e, inenjoy lang namin yung laro. Yun nga, once na nag-e-enjoy ako, nag-e-enjoy din sila. Nadadala. Kapag alam nilang gusto kong lumaban, lumalaban din sila and syempre yun nga, gusto na naming manalo pa lagi,” said the 6-foot-2 spiker from Tanza, Cavite.
“Yun, kanina nakikinig sila, so kapag sinabi kong tara, hingi nang hingi ng bola, ganun yung ginagawa nila. Everytime na nagkakamali kami, binubura namin agad sa isip namin para makapag-make ulit kami ng point,” she added.
