University of the East captured one of the first two seats in the Final Four of the UAAP Season 86 High School Boys’ Volleyball tournament following a 25-12, 25-17, 25-10 sweep of De La Salle-Zobel on Tuesday at the Adamson Gym in Ermita, Manila.
Two blocks off Junior Warriors team captain Jan Macam extended the lead to 16-9 before three infractions from the Junior Green Spikers saw the advantage grow to double digits.
Lance Flestado and Luis Pollentes produced kills to put UE at 23 as back-to-back kills from Zyrone Montemayor ended the match and sealed his squad’s passage into the next round.
“Yung confidence nung mga bata sa paglalaro, bumalik na. And ‘yung mga other players ko, nung training pa lang sinabi ko na mag-start sila. Yun naman din ‘yung strategy ko na bigyan sila ng confidence para just in case magamit ko sila, hindi na nila first time,” head coach Raffy Mosuela said after UE improved to a league-best 10-1 record.
National University Nazareth School, on the other hand, also bagged a Final Four berth with a 9-2 win-loss record following a sweep of University of the Philippines Integrated School, 25-8, 25-14, 25-11.
The Junior Green Spikers kept it close against Junior Red Warriors, at the start of the match as they capitalized on the errors of the latter’s starters, half of which is composed of second-stringers.
The current no. 1 squad then found its groove especially in their passing to eventually pull away in the first set with playmakers Andrei Mosuela and Romer Sumagaysay using all the squad’s points of attack.
Trailing by three at 8-11 in the second, back-to-back kills from Lance Babon sparked a 10-2 rally from UE for an 18-13 spread.
Babon, and substitutes Karl Reyes and Luis Pollentes, then took turns at the service area pummeling the errant reception from DLSZ to eventually put up the huge lead that they never relinquished.
The defeat sent the Junior Spikers to the brink of elimination with a 4-7 record.
Setters Jeffe Gallego Jr. and Kalel Ronquillo were solid for the Bullpups, which took control from the onset of the match and never looked back.
With UE and NUNS punching the first postseason tickets, University of Santo Tomas made a huge step in following the league leaders with a pivotal 20-25, 25-19, 27-25, 25-18 victory over closest pursuer Adamson University earlier in the day.
“I have to give it to the boys, ginusto talaga nilang manalo,” said Junior Golden Spikers’ assistant coach John Abella. “Tulad nga sinabi ko sa pep talk kagabi, ‘If you want to make the Final Four, we have to take this win.’ It was a good thing that they responded.”
Tied at nine in the third set, Adamson seized control of the frame off back-to-back kills from Tommy Castrodes and Tres Nacario to take an 11-9 advantage over UST. The Baby Falcons soared from there, using its defense to send the Junior Golden Spikers in disarray for a 20-14 cushion.
UST, though, capitalized on an opponent’s timeout for adjustments to turn a mini-run in their favor and even took two set points. A spike from Pao Medino and a kill block from Ron Poja eventually completed the comeback for the Golden Spikers for a 2-1 set lead.
With the momentum gained from that huge third-set fightback, Poja and company wrapped up the crucial match despite resistance from Yuan Samson and the rest of the Adamson side with a 25-18 finish and a 7-4 win-loss slate.
The Baby Falcons slipped to 5-6 to stay in fifth place.
The other match saw Far Eastern University-Diliman likewise boost their Final Four bid with their third straight win and ninth overall, 25-1, 25-8, 25-5, over Ateneo (0-11).
Zedrick Calimlim picked up from where Luis Miguel left off in the first set as the defending champions Baby Tamaraws, who now is in solo third place behind semis-bound Junior Warriors and Bullpups.
