Tigresses bag third place in Shakey’s V-League for Maizo

MANILA, Philippines — With Aiza Maizo on their minds, the University of Santo Tomas Tigresses clinched third place in the Shakey’s V-League Season 10 first conference.

UST disposed of Adamson, 25-18, 19-25, 25-19, 25-16, at the Philsports Arena on Sunday sans their former team captain in the UAAP and now guest player, who had to attend to her ailing son.

Head coach Ojie Mamon allowed Maizo to fly back home to Iloilo, where her kid has been hospitalized, last Wednesday.

“Family first, that’s her baby. I just told her not to think about the game, and we here are going to take care of it,” said Mamon in Filipino.

And the Tigresses did take care of business even with the veteran spiker out, also driven by pride of taking third place.

“We didn’t make it to the finals, but the next best thing for us is third place. This is our target,” said Mamon.

Junior Tigress Pamela Lastimosa paced UST with 19 points, including three blocks. Maika Ortiz and Carmela Tunay scored 16 and 12, respectively.

“This win’s for ate Aiza. We dedicate this win to her, and we really wanted to end our season with a victory,” said Lastimosa.

The off-season officially begins for the Tigresses, but Mamon already knows where they should focus on for the next UAAP season.

“We had our moments that our performance is really down, especially in the end game. That’s where we lack. We need to improve our mental toughness.”

Pau Soriano and Mayette Zapanta, meanwhile, topscored for the Lady Falcons with 13 and 11, in that order while guest player Angele Benting only had nine.