Every week, INQUIRER Sports will be ranking the seven best performers in the UAAP Season 80 women’s volleyball tournament. The author will base the rankings on the players’ team standings, statistics, and the intangibles that don’t appear on the stat sheets.
The second round is up and running but debutantes are still popping up on this weekly list.
University of the East made history this week when it beat University of Santo Tomas for the first time in more than two decades and won back-to-back games since 2012.
Jaja Santiago had been bumped off the list ending her five-week stay as National University now share the top spot with De La Salle.
With that out of the way, here are the best seven players of Week 6.
1. Kath Arado (University of the East, libero)
Kath Arado. Photo by Tristan Tamayo/INQUIRER.net
Last week: No. 5
Weeks on list: 2
From mere afterthoughts to surprise winners, the Lady Warriors’ success is thanks to no small part to their defensive anchor in Kath Arado.
UE’s libero has been overshadowed the past year since she shares the same position as De La Salle’s Dawn Macandili but Arado has slowly moved into the light and out of the shadow.
Despite winning Season 79’s Best Digger Award and the Season 77 Rookie of the Year, Arado’s talent was overshadowed by UE’s pile of losses.
And now that the Lady Warriors have made their comeuppance in the league, everyone had no choice but to take notice of Arado’s excellence.
Arado was the biggest thorn on the side of the Golden Tigresses when she tallied up monstrous numbers on the defensive end with 28 excellent digs and 32 excellent receptions.
In comparison, UST’ libero Rica Rivera had 17 excellent digs and 12 excellent receptions.
Arado’s efforts saw the Lady Warriors win their first game against the Golden Tigresses since the 1993-1994 academic year and UE’s first back-to-back wins since 2012.
2. Kianna Dy (De La Salle University, opposite hitter)
Kianna Dy. Photo by Tristan Tamayo/INQUIRER.net
Last week: No.1
Weeks on list: 3
There’s an English proverb that goes “hell hath no fury like a woman scorned” and Kianna Dy embodied the woman in William Congreve’s The Mourning Bride.
De La Salle was on a revenge tour at the start of the second round when it faced National University, one of the teams that beat the defending champion in the first round of the tournament,
The Lady Bulldogs, in the middle of their 6-1 run in the first round, took down the Lady Spikers 26-24, 19-25, 22-25, 25-17, 16-14, and Dy didn’t take it as a slight, she took it as an insult.
Dy made sure there wouldn’t be any extra sets when the two teams faced one more time as she punished NU with 14 points in La Salle’s 27-25, 27-25, 25-16 victory.
“We told ourselves ‘hey guys we lost to NU in the first round’ and that alone became our motivation for this game,” said Dy. “Of course it has been a trademark of La Salle that we will fight back after we’ve lost to anyone.”
3. Diana Carlos (University of the Philippines, outside hitter)
Diana Carlos. Photo by Tristan Tamayo/INQUIRER.net
Last week: No. 6
Weeks on list: 2
Diana Carlos continued her high-scoring ways, and against Adamson University the UP skipper showed why she’s one of the league’s deadliest hitters.
And it helped that Carlos and the Lady Maroons were also in redemption mode.
UP lost to Adamson in the first round in straight sets, 25-9, 27-25, 25-20, and Carlos was hell-bent on taking one back for the Lady Maroons.
Carlos made two clutch plays for UP in the fifth set with two consecutive back-to-back kills that gave the Lady Maroons a 15-14 lead in the period before Ayel Estrañero finished off the Lady Falcons for the Lady Maroons’ five-set win, 25-18, 14-25, 25-19, 21-25, 16-14.
UP’s captain finished with 22 points and her performance also made her the league’s no.2 scorer with 157 total points overtaking Jaja Santiago who has 154.
4. Mary Ann Mendrez (University of the East, outside hitter)
Mary Ann Mendrez. Photo by Tristan Tamayo/INQUIRER.net
Last week: N/A
Weeks on list: 1
If Arado frustrated UST, Mary Ann Mendrez demolished the Golden Tigresses.
Mendrez was the No. 10 scorer in the league before she and the Lady Warriors faced the Golden Tigresses and was averaging just 12.6 points a game.
After the match, Mendrez walked out as the league’s sixth-best scorer after tallying 21 points in their four-set win, 25-23, 18-25, 28-26, 26-24. She now has a total of 109 points this season.
5. Isa Molde (University of the Philippines, outside hitter)
Isa Molde. Photo by Tristan Tamayo/INQUIRER.net
Last week: N/A
Weeks on list: 2
It took five weeks for Isa Molde to make her return in the list.
Molde was part of the first edition of this list when she debuted at No. 5 but with UP’s string of misery in the first round she had to watch from the from the outside as others showed their mettle.
The Lady Maroons, however, have turned their fortunes around and Molde was a big part of their recent surge, having won two of their last three games.
In UP’s win against the Lady Falcons, Molde finished with 18 points, almost five points more than her 13.4 points per game average.
6. Desiree Cheng (De La Salle University, outside hitter)
Desiree Cheng. Photo by Tristan Tamayo/INQUIRER.net
Last week: N/A
Weeks on list: 1
Desiree Cheng has proven that she can quickly heat up no matter the situation.
And against NU, she once again went full microwave to become the second debutante this week.
Cheng finished with 13 points in the Lady Spikers’ three-set win and she was instrumental in helping La Salle take the pivotal second set.
With the scores knotted up at 25-25, Cheng went to work first with a crosscourt kill and the other an off-the-block spike to award the Lady Spikers the 27-25 set win.
7. Cherry Rondina (University of Santo Tomas, outside hitter)
Cherry Rondina. Photo by Tristan Tamayo/INQUIRER.net
Last week: N/A
Weeks on list: 5
In UST’s gloomiest of times, Cherry Rondina has worked her hardest in trying to give the Golden Tigresses some pride.
The Golden Tigresses are on a four-game losing streak and dropped to a 2-6 record in the standings, but that hasn’t stopped Rondina from losing hope that she can flip UST’s switch.
Rondina is still the league’s top scorer with a total of 176 points across eight games and is averaging 22 points per outing.
UST, however, took a shock loss to UE this week where Rondina finished with 25 points.