MANILA, Philippines—It was a tough pill to swallow for Far Eastern University after it blew its chance to climb to the no.2 spot in the UAAP Season 81 women’s volleyball tournament.
The Lady Tamaraws suffered a crushing three-set sweep against top seed Ateneo Wednesday that sent them to a 6-4 record while the Lady Eagles extended their winning run to nine games for a league-best, 9-1 card.
“We’re really disappointed with the way we played today but like coach [George Pascua] said after each game we should learn from it and move on to the next game,” said FEU captain Jerrili Malabanan after the 25-21, 25-10, 25-18 loss.
The Lady Tamaraws weren’t just outclassed in the offensive aspect of the game with the Lady Eagles putting a 35-27 advantage in spikes and an 8-3 edge in service aces, they were also partly responsible in their loss.
FEU threw away 27 free points due to errors and that is technically more than a set.
The loss sent the Lady Tamaraws into a three-way tie at the third spot with University of Santo Tomas and University of the Philippines in a Final Four race that gets tighter every passing day since all three teams have just four games to play.
With such a tight competition for a top four seeding, Malabanan said that talking isn’t enough for them with Pascua demanding that they play at a higher level than ever before.
“Coach said that he wants to see less talk and more action,” said Malabanan, who finished with eight points against Ateneo. “Our problem during the game earlier was we weren’t following the defense pattern that our coaches are telling us.”
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