THE ATENEO Lady Eagles, led by new captain Bea De Leon, demolished the Jose Rizal University (JRU) Lady Bombers in straight sets, 25-17, 25-15, 25-15, on Saturday, September 2, at the FilOil Flying V Centre in San Juan City.
The Lady Eagles are now 1-0 in the inaugural season of the Premier Volleyball League (PVL) Women’s Collegiate Conference.
Head coach Tai Bundit chose to field De Leon, Deanna Wong, Jules Samonte, Kat Tolentino, Jhoana Maraguinot, and Maddie Madayag in the starting line-up, with Kim Gequillana as the team’s libero.
The Lady Eagles began the game with a huge scoring run. Tolentino pushed the lead to seven early in the game with a cross-court attack that landed between two defenders (9-2). The trend continued until JRU sparked a run thanks to multiple errors by the Lady Eagles (21-15). The Blue and White, however, did not falter as newly appointed setter Wong scored from the service line to end the first set (25-17).
With Wong on the serve for the second set, the Lady Eagles went on an 8-0 run to enter the first technical timeout with a commanding lead (8-0). Like in the earlier set, JRU crawled back into the game by taking advantage of their opponent’s errors (14-8). Another service ace by Wong put her team ahead late into the set (19-9). Although more errors denied the Lady Eagles a swifter victory, a quick attack by De Leon ultimately finished the second set (25-15).
Two sets down, JRU’s Marla Alvarez showed impressive offensive skill to keep her team in the game (7-6). The score went back and forth until JRU began to make continuous errors (16-11). Despite Alvarez doing her best to keep her team in the game, Wong smartly dumped the ball to extend the lead to seven (21-14). De Leon finished a long rally to win the match with a cross-court attack off an excellent set by Wong (25-15).
Wong notched five service aces and 32 of 76 excellent, while De Leon was the top scorer with 14 points off 44% attack efficiency. Madayag scored most of the team’s points off kill-blocks with four from eight attempts. In her new role as libero, Gequillana notched 14 of 23 excellent digs.
“It’s a lot of adjustment now,” commented De Leon on the team’s losses in terms of key veterans. With the departure of former captain Jia Morado, De Leon claimed, “It’s a huge transition,” as the team now relies on her for leadership.
Box Scores
Ateneo
De Leon – 14, Tolentino – 11, Samonte – 10, Madayag – 10, Maraguinot – 8, Wong – 6, Gaston – 2
JRU
Alvarez – 9, Montojo – 9, Verzosa – 7, Bodiongan – 1
The Ateneo Lady Eagles defeat JRU in three sets (25-17, 25-15, 25-15).
