Bali Pure gets one step ahead of UST in battle-for-third

Bali Pure Water Defenders. Photo by Tristan Tamayo/INQUIRER.net

Bali Pure got a running start to the race for the bronze medal in the Shakey’s V-League Reinforced Conference after taming University of Santo Tomas, 19-25, 25-16, 25-18, 25-18, Saturday at Philsports Arena.

The Water Defenders need to close out the Golden Tigresses on Monday to clinch the third place in the tournament.

Team captain Kaylee Manns expressed disappointment over her team’s performance amid the lack of training, which showed when it dropped the first set.

“We played terrible—nothing against them, they played great—but we were looking at each other ‘what are we gonna do?’” said Manns. “We didn’t have a ton of training time and coach Tai [Bundit] wasn’t there, it was a mess.”

Bali Pure lost its chance to get to the finals and face Pocari Sweat when it lost to Bureau of Customs in the semifinals.

Katherine Morrell imposed her will on the Golden Tigresses when she put up 28 points to lead Bali Pure while Amy Ahomiro and Sue Roces combined for 21 points.

EJ Laure led UST with 23 points while Cherry Rondina had 10.