Padda says Adamson ‘scared on defense’ vs Rondina, UST

Adamson University head coach Air Padda could only shake her head and admit defeat when Cherry Rondina singlehandedly carried University of Santo Tomas over the Lady Falcons in the UAAP Season 80 women’s volleyball tournament.

Rondina was an unstoppable force leading the Golden Tigresses in a three-set win, 25-9, 31-29, 25-19, Sunday at Filoil Flying V Centre.

Padda said Adamson had futile resistance to at least slow down Rondina, who unleashed 22 points.

“We didn’t fight against her, my players totally bowed down,” said Padda as Adamson (2-2) slipped into a tie with UST, Ateneo, and Far Eastern University for the third seed in the tournament.

“They were scared on defense, we couldn’t stop Rondina at the net, we made way too many errors and it just caused not to play like we normally do.”

The closest a Lady Falcon got to the production of Rondina was captain Jema Galanza who only had 10 points but that out was still three points less than what UST’s second-highest scorer Dimdim Pacres had.

Adamson’s 25 errors were the same as UST but the number that truly defined the match were the Golden Tigresses’ advantage in spikes, 39-21, and service aces, 12-3.

And the Lady Falcons’ 21 scoring spikes were just four more than what Rondina had for herself alone in the match.

“Cherry is capable of taking a whole set, I was looking if her teammates would step up and they did,” said Padda. “The girls were intimidated, this is probably the biggest crowd we’ve played in and UST brings a lot of fans.”