ATENEO WITHSTANDS UST, MAINTAINS HOLD OF FIRST SPOT
By Ardyn Gonzales
15 March 2017
The Ateneo de Manila University Lady Eagles got their seventh consecutive win this season after surviving the comeback attempts of the University of Sto. Tomas Lady Tigresses, 25-10, 26-24, 28-26, to tighten their grip on first spot, March 15, Wednesday at the FilOil Flying-V Arena in San Juan.
It was a straight set loss, but UST made Ateneo work really hard for the win.
After limiting UST to just 10 points in the first frame, Ateneo saw themselves in the next two sets ina familiar situation they experienced against La Salle in their first round match-up. But this time, they were the ones struggling on closing out the sets.
Ateneo was ahead in the second and third sets, 22-18 and 24-19 respectively, before UST stunned the Lady Eagles with their run to get them at set point.
Not letting the situation get into their heads, the calm Lady Eagles resilientlyfought back and continued to bombard UST with loaded serves to return the favor led by the best server in the league Jia Morado. True enough, Ateneo had a total of 16 service aces against the five of UST.
Teamwork made it happen for Ateneo again, as Bea de Leon, Jho Maraguinot, Mich Morente, and Kat Tolentino were allin double digits.
Meanwhile, only team captain Sisi Rondina delivered for UST with 14 points.
The win of Ateneo(8-1) forced another quadruple tie among UST, UP, FEU and NU at the third spot with 5-4 win-loss records.
Player of the Game: Jhoana Maraguinot, 12 points (11 attacks and 1 service ace)
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