UAAP volleyball: Ateneo bounces back, holds off UST for first win

MANILA, Philippines—Ateneo got into the winners’ circle after prevailing over University of Santo Tomas, 25-21, 25-18, 16-25, 25-22, in the UAAP Season 81 women’s volleyball tournament Wednesday at Filoil Flying V Center.

The Lady Eagles tied the Golden Tigresses at 1-1 after absorbing a loss in their season opener against De La Salle, 25-14, 25-17, 16-25, 25-19 on Sunday.

Despite holding on to the lead for most of the fourth set, the Lady Eagles didn’t have total control over UST with the Golden Tigresses continuously knocking at the gates.

Ateneo held a five-point, 23-18 lead after Eya Laure’s error but that got dwindled to just one after three straight attacks from UST and error from Jules Samonte made it 23-22.

Kat Tolentino, however, came up in the clutch and put Ateneo at the 24-22 match point with a booming kill that bounced off Cherry Rondina’s reception.

Milena Alessandrini then gave away the final point to Ateneo after her down the line kill went out of bounds.

Ateneo head coach Oliver Almadro said he did not have a hard time in putting the right mindset into his players since the Lady Eagles themselves were already eager in recovering from their loss.

“My players had the resiliency to recover from that loss because they were the ones who wanted to immediately bounce back, they believe they can win today,” said Almadro in Filipino.

“Hopefully this is a stepping stone for a bright future.”

Tolentino powered Ateneo’s offense with 22 points while Maddie Madayag had 15.

Cherry Rondina scored a team-high 20 points for the Golden Tigresses with Laure and Alessandrini playing support with 12 and 10 points, respectively.

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