UE ends volleyball season with a victory

c/o UAAP

The University of the East ended their season in the UAAP Season 86 Women's Volleyball tournament on a winning note, dispatching the University of the Philippines, 23-25 25-17 27-25 25-22, Saturday at the SMART-Araneta Coliseum.

The Lady Warriors snapped their five-game losing skid to finish their campaign at 3-11, the same record as Adamson University. It was their best post-pandemic season even, and a two-win improvement from this past season.

Interim head coach Dr. Obet Vital shared to the media afterwards, "Given the rookies that we have playing, I felt that we did pretty good. Could have done better but very proud of the accomplishments so far."

UE had to survival a game final effort from their fellow Strong Group-backed squad in the final set, as the Fighting Maroons, led by Irah Jaboneta and Jewel Encarnacion, crawled back from a 14-20 deficit to be at 22-23, but a Casiey Dongallo crosscourt kill, followed by a block point from her teammates allowed them to end the match with a victory after two hours and twelve minutes.

Dongallo finished with 25 spikes, a couple of blocks, and an ace. The freshman added nine digs for good measure to cap her impressive season.

She shared afterwards, "Masaya kasi even though may goal kami na hindi namin nagawa pero nandito pa rin kami nanalo naman kami sa last game namin and naibigay namin yun sa seniors kasi sabi ko sa kanila aalis sila sa UE na iba naman yung history."

Providing backup offensively are Riza Nogales and Kayce Balingit, who contributed seventeen and ten points, respectively.

Kizzie Madriaga lobbed twelve excellent sets, while libero Ange Reyes netted four digs.

Jaboneta and Steph Bustrillo led the way in the defeat with fifteen markers each, while Nina Ytang added thirteen of her own. The Maroons finished the season at 1-13, losing their final seven assignments.

The match proved to be the final collegiate game for Dea Villamor, Dara Nieva, and Jen Zeta of UE and Abi Goc for UP.