University of Santo Tomas sent winless University of the East on the brink of elimination, 25-17, 25-16, 25-17, to return to the win column of the UAAP Season 85 women’s volleyball tournament at the SM Mall of Asia Arena, Wednesday.
Eya Laure did the heavy lifting for the Golden Tigresses, who moved up to solo third, with 17 points on 15 attacks, a block, and an ace.
With a 6-3 card, UST moved half a game behind No. 2 Adamson University.
“Malaking bagay para sa amin kasi first round we started with a loss, ngayon second round ganon din ang maganda naman bumabalik kami agad after ng pagkatalo,” said head coach Kungfu Reyes.
The Lady Warriors were up by a point at the second technical timeout of the third set before the Golden Tigresses unleashed a lethal finishing kick to complete the sweep, 25-17.
Nine of the 11 UST non-libero players used by Reyes were able to score at least two points with middle blockers Imee Hernandez and Pia Abbu contributing eight and seven points, respectively.
KC Cepada and Van Bangayan were at the forefront of UE’s attack again with 12 and 11 points, respectively, while Ja Lana added 10 points but that was it.
Jel Quizon and Kamille Dionisio were the only other Lady Warriors who were able to enter the scoring column with one point each as they slid to 0-9.
Up next for UST is the still-unscathed De La Salle University on Sunday at the SMART Araneta Coliseum. UE will aim for win no. 1 earlier that day against Far Eastern University.
