UP Lady Maroons. FILE PHOTO/Tristan Tamayo, INQUIRER.net
University of the Philippines is off to its greatest start in recent history after brushing off University of Santo Tomas, 25-22, 25-22, 29-31, 25-19, to stay atop in the standings of the UAAP Season 79 women’s volleyball tournament Sunday at Filoil Flying V Centre in San Juan.
The Lady Maroons’ 4-0 start is the best in the league while the Golden Tigresses slipped to 1-3.
UST captain Cherry Rondina had the misfortune of putting UP at the 24-19 match point with an erroneous attack then Isa Molde capitalized and sealed the victory with a service ace.
UP dropped its first set this season after losing the third set but assistant coach Rald Ricafort, was confident the lasses were capable of calming down in the fourth.
“Maturity is the keyword there, because if the girls didn’t have it surely they wouldn’t have recovered,” said Ricafort. “We told them to just forget about the third set.”
Ricafort added the Lady Maroons should never get ahead of themselves despite the undefeated card.
“We shouldn’t think about that 4-0 record, what we’re thinking is to go to each game and take it. Being too confident is the last thing we need to do.”
Diana Carlos led UP with 18 points while Isa Molde finally broke out of her slump as she dropped 14.
Nicole Tiamzon added 13 points to UP’s cause.
EJ Laure had 18 points to pace UST while Romdina and Chloe Cortez added 12 points apiece.
In a match where the numbers were incredibly close, UST had a minute 45-44 spikes advantage and everything else were equal, it was in the service department the Lady Maroons had control.
UP scored on 15 points of its services while UST scored just four.