Great recovery

University of Santo Tomas finally ended La Salle’s long reign on Sunday night.

And right through the joyous aftermath, the Tigresses vowed to bring back their own glory days.

UST woke up from its usual mid-game stupor to pull off a hard-fought 25-19, 25-19, 20-25, 23-25, 15-10 triumph and make the finals of the UAAP women’s volleyball at Mall of Asia Arena, which will be the first for the Tigresses in eight seasons.

“When I entered college this year, my promise was to bring back the glory days of UST because it’s been a long time,” said UST top rookie Eya Laure after dropping 27 points, including the one that clinched the win.

It’s still a long way to go, but the 20-year-old spiker at least managed to bring the Tigresses closer to their goal.

The Tigresses will face the winner in the other Final Four pairing between Far Eastern University and Ateneo on Wednesday, a match necessitated by the Lady Tamaraws victory over the top-seeded Lady Eagles, 10-25, 25-23, 25-22, 12-25, 15-8, on Saturday.

The celebration looked like a championship already as UST denied three-time defending champion La Salle a finals appearance for the first time in 11 years, a span that saw the Lady Spikers winning six titles.

“It’s a privilege for us to face defending champion La Salle. These big teams, La Salle, Ateneo and FEU, we learned a lot [playing] them [in the past],” said UST coach Kungfu Reyes.

UST defeated La Salle twice in a row to earn the twice-to-beat incentive it never had to use. But most importantly, it emboldened the Tigresses to chase the title it last won nine years ago.

Some 15,000 spectators inside the MOA Arena and thousands more on TV and the internet followed the match.

A big chunk of those in live attendance were UST alumni longing for a return of that golden era in the late 80s and early 90s where the Tigresses won seven straight crowns.

“It’s not over yet. We still have one goal. We want to win the title. We owe it to the supporters, alumni who continue to believe in us,” said UST’s captain Sisi Rondina who fired 17 points.

UST gave away 26 points on unforced errors in the third and fourth sets as it got lulled into complacency, something that usually happened this season when it appeared that the Tigresses already have the match under control.

“I told my teammates that we should not relax. We don’t want to be complacent,” said Laure.

But that’s exactly what the Tigresses did, allowing the Lady Spikers to get back into the match despite holding a 15-11 lead in the third set.

Fortunately, everything clicked for UST in the fifth as it got big points from secondary options like Caitlyn Viray and even setter Alina Bicar.

Viray finished with 10 points, while KC Galdones added 11 for UST.