MANILA, Philippines—Oliver Almadro knew that Ateneo’s 10-game winning streak in the UAAP Season 81 women’s volleyball tournament would eventually come to an end.
What he didn’t expect is that the winning run would collapse against De La Salle.
The Lady Spikers, the league’s defending champions, thrashed the Lady Eagles in straight sets, 25-17, 25-13, 25-23, in a manner Almadro found to be surprising.
“It’s disappointing because we lost that quick but of course I knew that the time will come that our performance would take a dip,” said Almadro in Filipino. “I just didn’t expect it to happen against La Salle.”
Ateneo’s only two losses in the tournament so far have all been against their fierce rivals.
What made the second little harder to swallow was that Ateneo’s main weapon—it’s blocking—got completely neutralized.
The Lady Eagles had been league’s best blocking team averaging 2.62 kill blocks per set but tallied zero the whole match against La Salle.
Maddie Madayag, the league’s best blocker with .9 kill blocks per set, said they expected the Lady Spikers to send out a power-driven attack but what happened was the complete opposite.
“We were expecting hard spikes and they weren’t giving that many hard spikes, they gave more long balls, and touch shots,” said Madayag in Filipino. “We were surprised with that especially on the defensive end.”
Almadro, though, said they have to forget about their defeat to La Salle especially with the Final Four round looming.
Ateneo still has two games left in its schedule against eliminated teams Adamson University and University of the East.
“It’s important for us to get the momentum back especially going into the semifinals,” said Almadro. “We have to keep the positivity. This game is over so we just have to be positive for the next games.”