Mackie, Pocari Sweat overpower UST, claim top spot

Tristan Tamayo/INQUIRER.net

Pocari Sweat claimed the top spot in the Shakey’s V-League Season 13 Reinforced Conference, fending off University of Santo Tomas 25-16, 25-23, 22-25, 25-14, Wednesday at Philsports Arena.

Cherry Rondina’s final shot of the match went long giving the Lady Warriors the win and the 6-1 record while the Golden Tigresses slipped to as low as the fourth seed despite having a 5-2 slate.

UST finished with 14 points, the same as Bureau of Customs but the Transformers had a set ratio of 1.667, better than the Golden Tigresses’ 1.600. 

Lady Warriors head coach Rommel Abella knew his team was going into the semifinals even before they went up against UST but he reminded his players to never let their guard down since they have to establish their momentum going into the title rounds.

“Siyempre yung mga players may tendency mag relax pero sinabihan ko sila na whether it’s a best-of-three or twice-to-beat, kailangan manalo sa lahat ng games kasi kailangan ng  team yung momentum and yung confidence mataas,” said Abella. 

Breanna Mackie had a conference-high 27 points to lead Pocari Sweat while Myla Pablo added 16.

EJ Laure had 18 points to lead the Golden Tigresses who were fresh off winning the women’s volleyball title in the recently concluded Unigames.