The NCAA Season 98 Women’s Volleyball Tournament kicked off with a thrilling match between defending champion College of St. Benilde (CSB) and San Sebastian College-Recoletos (SSC-R) on Saturday at the San Andres Sports Complex.
In a match that saw both teams fight tooth and nail, CSB ultimately emerged victorious with a 20-25, 25-22, 25-13, 25-11 win.
The Lady Blazers were led by Gayle Pascual, who scored a game-high 26 points, including 21 attacks and nine excellent digs.
Cloanne Mondonedo also played a key role for CSB, tallying 20 excellent sets. After dropping the first set, CSB assistant coach Jay Chua reminded his squad to relax and focus on the task at hand.
“Yung first set kasi sobrang stiff talaga nila, parang slow start at kinakabahan din kasi jitters. Niremind lang namin sila na relax lang,” he said.
The Lady Stags, however, almost stole the second set from CSB, scoring six straight points to make it a 22-23 game. A costly error from Katherine Santos, however, gave the Lady Blazers match point, which Jessa Dorog ultimately converted.
From that point on, CSB dominated the following sets, finishing the match in four.
For the Lady Stags, Katherine Santos finished with 17 points on 14 attacks, while Alexia Sison had 17 excellent sets.
Meanwhile, in another match, Arellano University also had a successful start to their campaign with a 25-18, 25-20, 25-23 win against Jose Rizal University (JRU). Laika Tudlasan, a rookie playing in her collegiate debut, led the Lady Chiefs with 23 points, including 18 attacks and five aces.
Head coach Obet Javier praised Tudlasan’s impressive performance and said she delivered what was expected of her.
“Syempre masaya ako dun sa bata kasi yung ineexpect ko sa kanya kahit na rookie, nagawa niya talaga yung ineexpect ko sa kanya,” said Javier.
With match point already at hand for the Lady Chiefs in the third set, JRU’s Karyla Jazareno was able to score, trying to force an extra time. Unfortunately for JRU, an attack from Mariannelei Padillon finished the game in the third set. Donnalyn Paralejas also played a crucial role for Arellano, tallying 19 excellent sets.
For the Lady Bombers, Sydney Niegos finished with 11 points, while Marianne Alona had 17 excellent digs.
With these results, both CSB and Arellano started the season strong with 1-0 records, while SSC-R and JRU dropped to 0-1.
