Ateneo steadies 2nd-set wobble to soar past Iriga

Vannesa Gangler and the Lady Eagles spread their wings against Iriga-Navy. —AUGUST DELA CRUZ

Ateneo-Motolite steadied itself in the second set to cruise past Iriga-Navy, 25-19, 29-27, 25-14, in the Premier Volleyball League Open Conference at FilOil Flying V Center.

After yielding the first set to the Lady Eagles, the winless Lady Oragons made a surprise attack in the second set, leading by as many as 19-7 mainly through its underrated players like Nene Bautista, Joanne Bunag and Grazielle Bombita.

But Ateneo spread its wings and bounced back from that deficit by taking 17 of the next 18 points through the exploits of rookie Vanessa Gandler, Kat Tolentino and Bea de Leon.

Iriga still found life and fought back to take set point, 25-24, but the Lady Oragons soon fell into rash of errors to eventually yield the frame and surrender the momentum to the Lady Eagles.

“To just come back from mistakes is something we need to work on,” said Tolentino, who led Ateneo with 14 points. “We shouldn’t let a little mistake bother us. In the end, it’s not about how good you are but how you recovered from mistakes.”

Ateneo sure held itself well after that shaky second set as it pounded relentlessly in the third frame mainly from the efforts of Ponggay Gaston, who scored five of her eight points when the Lady Eagles detonated a 7-0 scoring binge.

“I really enjoy playing from the bench, it’s much harder than being a starter,” said Gaston, who is coming from a stint in beach volleyball in the UAAP.

It was third win in four outings for Ateneo while Iriga dropped to 0-6.

Later, PetroGazz drubbed Adamson-Akari, 25-17, 25-20, 25-13, for its fourth win in seven games.