THE ATENEO Blue Eagles came out victorious against the University of the Santo Tomas (UST) Growling Tigers in straight sets, 25-22, 25-17, 25-19, in Season 81 of the University Athletic Association of the Philippines (UAAP) Season 81 Men’s Volleyball Tournament on Wednesday, April 10, at the FilOil Flying V Centre in San Juan City.

Blue Eagles Head Coach Timothy Sto. Tomas fielded his usual starting lineup of Gian Glorioso, Chu Njigha, Egie Magadia, Tony Koyfman, Ron Medalla, Jan Rivera, and Manuel Sumanguid at libero. Service specialist and second setter Bok Morado came in during the first and second sets while Basti Cuerva checked in to serve in the first and third sets. Team Captain Jasper Tan got some minutes off the bench in the third set.

Njigha was instrumental as his offensive threat gave the wing spikers an easier time in terms of scoring. The Season 79 Rookie of the Year finished the game with 11 spikes, three blocks, and a service ace while Magadia racked up 25 excellent sets. The Blue Eagles were extremely effective from the service line as they scored a total of seven service aces with Rivera leading the team with three. Sumanguid brought another great performance in terms of floor defense as he recorded 21 excellent receives and 16 excellent digs.

The Blue and White struggled in the first set as an early 6-0 run from UST put them ahead by three by the first technical timeout (TTO) with the score at 5-8.

Errors from the Growling Tigers allowed Ateneo to make a comeback as they took the lead off a 4-0 run to leave the score at 15-14. The battle for the first set remained neck-and-neck until consecutive attack errors from Jao Umandal forced UST to call time, 23-20. Back-to-back kills from UST rookie Jaron Requinton cut the deficit to one until an off-the-block kill from Koyfman and a service ace by Morado ended the set, 25-22.

It was another close fight in the second set but a 5-2 run entering the first TTO put the Katipunan-based squad ahead by three, 16-13. The Blue Eagles continued to pull away as consecutive blocks from Njigha forced UST to make a change at the setter position, 20-15. Excellent setting from Magadia negated the UST blockers as Medalla and Rivera easily scored on the late UST blocks. A clean spike by Medalla to zone six gave the Blue Eagles the 2-0 lead in set scores, 25-17

The Blue Eagles came out of the gates on fire as they started the third set with a 5-0 scoring run headlined by consecutive service aces from Rivera. Coming off the second TTO, the Blue Eagles went on a 6-2 run to widen the lead to seven points, forcing UST to call their last timeout, 21-15. The Growling Tigers tried to mount a comeback but it was too little too late as a service error from Gem Corda wrapped up the win for the Blue Eagles, 25-18

Ateneo now stands at third place with a win-loss record of 8-4 tied with Adamson University (AdU). The playoff teams are now assured to be National University (NU) and Far Eastern University (FEU) at first and second respectively while at third and fourth are Ateneo and AdU.

On April 28, the Blue Eagles will face the Adamson Soaring Falcons in a crucial game that will decide who will face who in the playoffs. Before that game, however, the Blue and White will face off against the UE Red Warriors on April 13 in the Araneta Center Coliseum in Quezon City.

Set Scores

Ateneo-AdU: 25-22, 25-17, 25-19

Photo by Joshua Tan