Ateneo hurdles St. Benilde in five sets, remains unbeaten

St. Benilde’s Jannine Navarro (1) goes up for a kill against Ateneo’s Kim Gequillana (18) and Amy Ahomiro during their Shakey’s V-League clash at The Arena. CONTRIBUTED PHOTO

It was reminiscent of a classic blue-and-green rivalry, but one of competitors had a different shade of green.

Ateneo overcame devastation as it took down College of St. Benilde, 23-25, 18-25, 25-8, 25-20, 15-10, in the group stages of the Shakey’s V-League Collegiate Conference on Saturday at San Juan Arena.

It took back-to-back errors from Jannine Navarro to seal the five-setter with the Lady Blazer’s attacks going array that ensured the Lady Eagles’ 4-0 record in Group B.

Lady Eagles team captain Alyssa Valdez admitted her team was reeling from the injuries which had depleted their lineup.

Ateneo has setter Jia Morado on the injured list while rookie Kat Tolentino is out for the season with a knee injury.

“We’re really affected with the injuries, it’s almost every game,” Valdez said. “As a team, however, we have to fight, we have to do what we have to do.”

Compounding the Lady Eagles’ misery, another injury hampered their roster when Pauleen Gaston twisted her right ankle during the pre-game warmups.

Ateneo’s first two sets were pedestrian, allowing the Lady Blazers ample momentum going to the third set.

CSB, however, ran into a beating in the pivotal third set when the reigning UAAP champions played inspired volleyball and flat out dominated the Lady Blazers with reckless abandon.

Valdez said just looking at their head coach Tai Bundit having a sunny disposition despite a setback was what inspired them to win.

“Coach Tai was so positive, and us as players why would we feel down when even our coach is still feeling positive,” Valdez said.

Ateneo and CSB had fairly the same amount of errors with 36 and 37 respectively but the Lady Eagles had a modest advantage on spikes with 50 compared to the Lady Blazers’ 40.

Valdez led the Atenean comeback with a sizzling 32 points while Bea de Leon added 11.

Jeanette Panaga and Navarro combined for 31 points to lead the 2-2 Lady Blazers.