Photo by Tristan Tamayo/INQUIRER.net
MANILA, Philippines—University of Santo Tomas has risen to the upper echelon six games into its campaign in the UAAP Season 81 women’s volleyball tournament and its captain Cherry Rondina intends to keep the Golden Tigresses’ progress going.
The Tigresses climbed the ladder on Saturday at Filoil Flying V Centre when they brushed off National University, 26-24, 25-17, 23-25, 25-17, to tie defending champion De La Salle in the third spot with 4-2 records.
Being third is a good position to be in but Rondina believes UST is better than that and she’s out to prove that the Golden Tigresses are among the league’s top teams.
“I’m always positive and I always think to myself that we’re on top,” said Rondina in Filipino. “So what we have to do now is just talk to each other and continue what we’re doing. We just have to avoid the simple errors that we could have converted into a good action.”
UST had a rough start this season after splitting its first four games and losing star spiker and reigning Rookie of the Year Milena Alessandrini to a knee injury.
But instead of crumbling amid adversity, the Golden Tigresses used Alessandrini’s absence as motivation and went on to notch their first string of successive wins this season.
Rondina, who had 16 points, said that with Alessandrini gone the rest of the team has to step up while also making a stand that the remaining players can fill in that void.
“We’re staying on our goal and even though Milena’s gone we’re still here,” said Rondina. “We’re here to fill in the gap she left and we all trained in the same system so there’s no problem on that part.”