THE ATENEO Lady Eagles defeated the University of the East (UE) Lady Warriors in straight sets, 25-22, 25-17 and 26-24, on Sunday, February 15, at the FilOil Flying V Arena in San Juan.
Head Coach Anusorn “Tai” Bundit set up an unusual rotation of positions for this game against the Lady Warriors. Ateneo’s usual outside spiker Alyssa Valdez was fielded in as the middle blocker for the first time, while Michelle Morente entered the game as one of the starting six. Rookie Maddie Madayag also checked in for the injured Bea de Leon.
The Lady Eagles roughly adjusted to their new positions.Unlike their first matchup against UE, the Lady Eagles saw longer rallies care of aggressiveness from UE’s sophomore Team Captain Shaya Adorador. But the Lady Eagles were able to work around their opponent’s barrage of attacks as they breezed through the first two sets that ended at 25-22 and 25-17, respectively.
The third set, however, proved to be a tough challenge for the Blue and White squad. The Lady Eagles committed several errors on service and reception, allowing UE to gain as much as an 11-point lead, 6-17. But both Valdez and Amy Ahomiro sparked a comeback to recuperate as their efforts tied the set at 24. Errors from the UE side eventually locked the set and match at 26-24.
When asked how they were able to recuperate from the huge deficit, Valdez quipped in a mix of English and Filipino, “Coach Tai kept on telling us to meditate and enjoy the game. We haven’t reached 25 yet, so he told us to try harder and work double time to get points.”
Their win against the Lady Warriors puts the Katipunan-based team at a 13-0 tally in the elimination round standings.
Team Captain Valdez topped the team in scoring with 14 points, followed up by Ahomiro and Ella de Jesus with 10 each. Adorador, on the other hand, carried the Lady Warriors on her shoulders with 17 markers.
Setter Jia Morado was crucial to the Lady Eagles’ win as she distributed the ball with 30 excellent sets.
Their next game will be their last match for the elimination round and will be against archrivals De La Salle University, 4PM, Wednesday, February 18, at the Mall of Asia Arena in Pasay City.
