AFTER TAKING down their National University (NU) rivals, the Ateneo Blue Eagles blazed past the University of Santo Tomas (UST) in straight sets (25-22, 25-15, 25-23) in Season 80 of the University Athletic Association of the Philippines (UAAP) Men’s Volleyball tournament on Sunday, February 11, at the FilOil Flying V Center in San Juan City. The Blue Eagles are now at a 2-1 standing in the tournament.
Marck Espejo led the Blue and White with 16 points and two blocks, nailing 14 of 23 spikes on an efficient 60% attack proficiency. Ron Medalla, who was named Player of the Game, put up 13 points while Ish Polvorosa put up an effective 34 of 60 excellent sets to boost Ateneo’s offensive output.
Starting was the usual group of Karl Baysa, Espejo, Polvorosa, Medalla, Gian Glorioso, Chu Njigha, and Manuel Sumanguid as libero. For clinch serves, Pau Trinidad and rookie Jobok Morado were also brought in.
The Blue Eagles stormed the first set with a 5-0 run after a kill block and spike from Medalla. However, UST caught up with a 4-0 run of their own bringing the score to 5-4. From then on, both teams continued to exchange points, but UST struggled with 12 errors throughout the set, which tipped the scale to the Blue and White. Ateneo pulled ahead late in the set thanks to Espejo’s heroics who took the set point with a strong kill block (25-22).
The second set started out with both teams evenly matched after action-packed exchanges of blocks and spikes coming into the first technical timeout (TTO) with Ateneo leading by one (8-7). The Tigers, however, deteriorated later on, again handing Ateneo numerous points as 13 errors plagued them in this set. Njigha and Espejo capitalized on UST’s downfall with a kill block and successive attacks to help Ateneo cruise past the set (25-15).
At the top of their game, the Blue and White maintained top-notch intensity coming into the third set, but UST had not thrown in the towel just yet. Back-to-back attack returns plagued the start of the set, with the score again at 8-7 in favor of Ateneo at the first TTO. The set then became a battle between the pairs of Espejo and Medalla and Tigers Umandal and Bautista taking charge on offense. Ultimately, the game was tied at 23 points, but Baysa’s clutch kill block and a service error from UST finally gave the set and match to Ateneo (25-23).
The Blue Eagles limited their errors to only 18 in the entire game while shut down the current third best UAAP scorer, Joshua Umandal, to just nine points.
“When we execute properly, the other team will keep on guessing,” said Ateneo Head Coach Oliver Almadro on the team’s offense. “We just have to maximize our strength—the serves and receives, and play maturely.”
The next game for the Blue Eagles will be against the University of the East (UE) Red Warriors, on Saturday, February 17, 8:00 AM, at the FilOil Flying V Center in San Juan City.
Set Scores
Ateneo-UST: 25-22, 25-15, 25-23
Box Score
Ateneo: Espejo – 16, Medalla – 13, Njigha- 6, Baysa- 4, Glorioso – 4, Tan – 1, Polvorosa- 1
UST: Bautista – 12, Medina – 10, Umandal – 9, Carodan – 7, Tajanlangit – 3, Buro – 1
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