Thursday, February 25, 2016

Ateneo, Adamson secure volleyball wins

Defending champions Ateneo flexed its muscles in anticipation of its highly-anticipated matchup against rivals La Salle, easily taking care of business against the University of the East, 25-12 25-10 25-10 on Wednesday afternoon at the Filoil Flying V Arena in San Juan.

The Lady Eagles needed 64 minutes to claim their sixth straight victory this season, and 24th straight overall. In all sports, only Adamson softball (71), NU men's lawn tennis (43), and NU women's basketball (32) have a longer ongoing winning streak as of the moment.

Jhoana Maraguinot led Ateneo with eleven spikes and a block, while reigning MVP Alyssa Valdez contributed eight spikes, two aces, and five excellent digs. Jia Morado added four spikes and two blocks to her 27 excellent sets, while Jamie Lavitoria had eleven excellent digs.

Head coach Tai Bundit had the luxury to provide some playing time for almost everyone during this straight set victory, including the Gaston sisters (Pauline and Therese) and rookies Ria Lo and Deanna Wong.

The other women's volleyball matchup saw Adamson secure a come-from-behind 21-25 17-25 25-19 25-23 15-10 victory over Far Eastern University.

The five-set marathon allowed May Roque to put up a career-best performance with 19 spikes, a block, and three aces. Ably complementing the rookie are Jema Galanza's sixteen points, nine excellent digs and eight excellent receptions, while Fhen Emnas put out 37 excellent sets to help end Adamson's four-game slide.

Head coach Sherwin Meneses acknowledged the value of the victory, "Importante yung pagkapanalo namin kasi magkaka-dikit dikit na ulit ang standings."

The Lady Tamaraws were a couple of  points away from taking the match in the fourth set, but gave it away to the Lady Falcons, who had scored the next three points, and then fell to a 2-10 deficit in the final set before attempting a small comeback and eventually yielding the win to the San Marcelino-based volleybelles. FEU fell into fourth with a 3-3 record.

Bernadeth Pons led FEU with 19 spikes, six aces, and eleven excellent digs, while Chinchin Basas netted twenty points and ten excellent digs.

On the men's side, Ateneo and Adamson took contrasting routes to claim victories earlier on Wednesday.

The defending champions took care of things against UE, 25-16 25-18 25-14, with reigning MVP Marck Espejo scoring 13 markers.

In contrast, Adamson withstood an attempted comeback from the University of the Philippines to claim a 25-18 25-23 18-25 18-25 15-13 win. The Falcons fended off the Maroons on matchpoint through a Bryan Saraza kill, his eighteenth point of the match. They also got 19 from Jerome Sarmiento.

No comments:

Post a Comment