Ateneo shows character in quick win over UP

Ateneo Lady Eagles. Photo by Tristan Tamayo/INQUIRER.net

MANILA, Philippines—Ateneo wasn’t leaving its game against University of the Philippines in the UAAP Season 81 women’s volleyball tournament to chance.

The Lady Eagles already had a comfortable 2-0 set lead when they entered a turbulent third set against the persistent Lady Maroons, but Ateneo had no plans of playing a fourth set.

Going tit-for-tat, Ateneo eventually closed out UP in straight sets, 25-21, 25-15, 28-26.

“We didn’t consider that there would be a fourth set,” said Madayag Sunday at Filoil Flying V Centre in San Juan.

UP held the lead 26-25 in the third, but Ateneo fought back first with Madayag’s block on Maristela Layug before Deanna Wong followed it up with a drop to secure the Lady Eagles’ league-leading 4-1 record.

“We really wanted to win, it was a long week for us to prepare and we had composure even though UP came back in the third set.” said Wong.

“We wanted to finish it,” said Tolentino, who had 12 points against the Fighting Maroons. “We saw a lot of fight in UP and it’s good to see that our team didn’t back down and didn’t let up and continued fighting. It’s just a show of character that we could finish that last set.”

Madayag, who finished with a team-high 14 points, said that they had to “win convincingly” against the Lady Maroons and part of that was to end the match as quickly as possible.

“Coach O (Oliver Almadro) tells us to win convincingly so this game we showed how convincingly we can win,” said Madayag. “Like what people say that you have to be better than your best.”