Ria Meneses (18) and Pam Lastimosa of UST try to block the hit of La Salle Dasma’s Desiree Dadang. TRISTAN TAMAYO/INQUIRER.net
Score one for University of Santo Tomas as it rebelled against De La Salle University-Dasmariñas, 25-13, 25-12, 23-25, 25-18, in the group stages of the Shakey’s V-League Collegiate Conference Saturday at San Juan Arena.
EJ Laure, the reigning UAAP Rookie of the Year, found a slip in the Lady Patriots’ defense as she sent her winner off the green-and-white blockade.
Despite the win, Tigresses head coach Kung Fu Reyes said he is not satisfied with the team’s performance especially after their third-set meltdown.
“It should have been a straight-set victory,” Reyes said as his team went on a 1-1 win-loss record in Group B. “What’s bad is we were in the end game when lacked communication.”
“Even the simple ‘I’ll take this’ means a lot.”
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UST witnessed the Lady Patriots take a seven-point lead in the third set, 21-14, but the Tigresses fought back to tie it at 23-all.
La Salle-Dasmariñas, however, had a better closeout in the third.
“Our win was not convincing, we are not contented with it,” Reyes said. “We won in four sets but the third set was really bad.”
“We managed to close the gap but we still lost the set.”
Scoring was aplenty for the Tigresses with Laure leading the team with 18 points, while team captain Pam Lastimosa and veteran Mela Tunay added 17 and 16 points apiece.
Cherry Nunag and Iumi Yongco led the 0-2 Lady Patriots with a combined 21 points.
UST committed 33 errors as opposed to La Salle-Dasmariñas’ 25, but made up for these miscues with better offense as the Tigresses recorded 45 points off spikes. IDL