No stopping Tigresses in roaring to fourth straight; Lady Tams notch first win streak
Safe to say that, save for a short span in the third frame on Wednesday, University of Santo Tomas has shrugged off the woeful form that made the Golden Tigresses start the UAAP Season 87 women’s volleyball tournament with a limp.
The Tigresses roared to a fourth straight win following a 25-11, 25-23, 23-25, 25-12 disposal of University of the Philippines (UP) at Mall of Asia Arena, although the coaching staff feels there’s still much room for improvement.
“In the third set, our errors piled up, and then our players were following the pace of UP’s play,” assistant coach Yani Fernandez, speaking for coach KungFu Reyes, said as the Tigresses again failed to win in straight sets but still kept leader National U in sight.
“We told them not to follow the pace of UP, we should have our own tempo,” Fernandez added as UST improved to a 4-1 by playing with the form far better than what it showed in bowing in four sets to Far Eastern.
Even with significant manpower losses at the start of their season, the Tigresses have been delivering well with Angge Poyos, Regina Jurado and rookie Marga Altea picking up the scoring load left by Jonna Perdido and Xyza Gula.
And all the rest have been all too willing to chip in their share.
“I just reminded them to stay calm because when we match the pace of our opponent that’s when we crumble,” Jurado said after dropping a game-high 22 points. Poyos had 21.
“My goal this season is really to just help the team, especially since we lost key players from last season,” she added.
A whitewash
Meanwhile, the Lady Tamaraws won back-to-back games for the first time, a 25-23, 25-19, 25-20 whitewash of winless University of the East in the first game.
“Of course, we’re looking forward to continuing this much better trend,” coach Tina Salak said in Filipino. “Our target is the Final Four, and we know that it won’t be easy.”
After that victory over the Tigresses, the Lady Tams suffered two straight blows from University of the Philippines and defending champion National University.
They snapped that skid in a gritty marathon match against Ateneo over the weekend before not giving the Lady Red Warriors a chance as Far Eastern rose to 3-2 and is well within Final Four pace.
The Tamaraws, under now-assistant coach Manolo Refugia, reached the Final Four last season with a 9-5 record.
The Tamaraws will be staking their newfound winning momentum in tougher matches with Adamson on Saturday.
Gerzel Petallo led the Far Eastern charge once again with 12 points, all but one from kills, as Mitzi Panangin and Chenie Tagaod added 11 points apiece.
Captain and setter Tin Ubaldo dished out 13 excellent sets.
“We can’t lose sight of our goal and need to stay on path and not get lost,” Salak said. “We may stumble along the way, but we will fight to get there.”
