Photo by Tristan Tamayo/INQUIRER.net
When EJ Laure got carried off to the bench after spraining her right ankle early in the third set, University of Santo Tomas seemed headed to a quick exit the UAAP Season 79 women’s volleyball Final Four.
That injury, however, somply emboldened the Golden Tigresses as they stole one set in spirited effort against defending champions De La Salle University.
“When EJ went out I showed my teammates that we should rally and fight back, we have to work for it,” said skipper Cherry Rondina Saturday. “I showed them that we should not be pushovers.”
La Salle would eventually win in four sets, 25-14, 25-20, 24-26, 25-13, to advance to the Final Four but Rondina, Laure, and company made sure to hand the Lady Spikers a black-gold memento.
Laure returned to the playing court with La Salle leading 15-13, starting the Golden Tigresses’ comeback to foil a sweep forLa salle.
Rondina sealed the third set for UST with a filthy kill that no Lady Spiker defender was able to stop.
“I was hurt with what happened to EJ, I can’t accept that she’ll just sit this out, I don’t like that feeling,” said Rondina, who had 16 points in the loss. “But I wasn’t surprised when she came back. I know she’ll stomp it off and when I saw her hopping, I was just so happy.”