Ateneo Lady Eagles. Photo by Tristan Tamayo/INQUIRER.net
MANILA, Philippines—Ateneo came from the brink of defeat to stun Far Eastern University in five sets, 14-25, 19-25, 25-21, 25-18, 15-12, in the UAAP Season 81 women’s volleyball tournament Sunday night at Filoil Flying V Centre in San Juan.
The Lady Eagles took their second straight win and tied University of Santo Tomas and University of the Philippines in second place with identical 2-1 records.
FEU, meanwhile, suffered its second straight loss and dropped to sixth with a 1-2 record.
Like a team possessed, the Lady Eagles pulled something from within and absolutely flattened the Lady Tamaraws in the final three sets, although it also took a little bit of misfortune from FEU.
The third and fourth sets were all Ateneo but the fifth had a mixture of both as the two squads exchanged blows leading up to a 12-12 stalemate.
A couple of humongous errors by Kyle Negrito gave Ateneo a 14-12 cushion, the first one an overset to Celine Domingo and the next one was a long toss beyond the Lady Eagles’ baseline.
Kat Tolentino then buried the huge kill that ended the Lady Tamaraws.
“I just asked them to keep the faith, believe that it will be given to them. We’re down and we don’t know what to do already,” said Ateneo head coach Oliver Almadro. “Our legs were not working, our minds were not working.”
“They believed in each other and the skills eventually came out.”
Tolentino, who had just two points heading into the third set, finished with a game-high 19 points for the Lady Eagles while Maddie Madayag added 14.
Heather Guino-o led the Lady Tamaraws with 16 points while Celine Domingo and Jerrili Malabanan had 13 points apiece.