THE ATENEO Blue Eagles defeated the University of the East (UE) Red Warriors in straight sets, 25-22, 25-19, 25-11, in the 81st season of the University Athletic Association of the Philippines (UAAP) Men’s Volleyball Tournament on Sunday, March 3, at the Araneta Coliseum in Quezon 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. Rookie Kurt Aguilar, along with Bok Morado and Basti Cuerva, made appearances while Team Captain Jasper Tan and rookie spiker Abai Llenos were given playing time in the latter parts of the third set.

Koyfman was the team’s top scorer with 10 spikes and three kill blocks while Medalla contributed three aces and 6/7 excellent digs. Magadia was named the player of the game for his 27 excellent sets which allowed his spikers to score on 40 out of 82 attempts.

Ateneo led early in the first set with back-to-back aces from Medalla putting them up by five at the first technical timeout (TTO), 8-3. The Blue and White maintained the lead at the second TTO after Magadia’s block on Al-jhon^[a] Abalon, 16-10.  The Red Warriors tried to rally back and a net touch violation on Ateneo cut the deficit to three, 23-20. Glorioso eventually converted the set point with a block on the single coverage due to some confusion with Aguilar and Medalla’s positioning, 25-23.

Early errors allowed UE to keep the score close at the start of the second frame, with Abalon taking the lead for the Red Warriors via a soft tip, 7-8. The scores continued to stay close until errors by the Red Warriors allowed the Blue and White to go up by two at the second TTO, 16-14. Later on, a kill by Medalla to zone six forced a UE timeout, 20-17. The Blue Eagles then went on a 5-2 run to end the set thanks to Medalla’s bombardment from the service line.

It was another close battle in the third set, with UE’s defense matching Ateneo’s attacks. A kill off the block from Rivera gave his team the lead entering the first TTO, 8-7, before multiple errors from UE allowed the Katipunan-based squad to go on an 8-1 run capped by Koyfman’s block to signal the second TTO, 16-8. With the game in the bag, rookie spikers Llenos and Aguilar led the way, with the latter taking match point, 25-11.

Ateneo now stands at fourth place with a win-loss record of 2-2. The next game for the Blue and White will be on Sunday, March 10 at 10:00 AM against the University of the Philippines (UP) at the FilOil Flying V Centre in San Juan City.

Set Scores

Ateneo-UE: 25-22, 25-19, 25-11