Serbian lifts Iriga past UST

UST’s Shannen Palec twists for a shot off Iriga City’s Saam Miagawa. —AUGUST DELA CRUZ

Iriga City made sure it makes the next round Thursday night, but Serbian import Tamara Kmezic said they won’t settle just to qualify.

“We are talking that we don’t want to be last placed in the quarterfinals,” said Kmezic, the 6-foot-6 opposite spiker who sowed terror on Victoria Sports-UST, 25-19, 25-21, 25-20, in the Chooks to Go-Philippine Superliga Grand Prix at Filoil Flying V Centre.

“We don’t want to face the first placers (in the quarterfinals),” said Kmezic, who unloaded 20 points as the Oragons scored their second win in six match and handed the Tigresses their sixth defeat in as many games.

Shyrra Cabriana opened the scoring lanes for the former CVB Barca spiker who admitted she “had an easy time because I didn’t have tall blockers.”

Kmezic indeed had a field day firing from the left flank against the shorter Tigresses. Her powerful smashes, coming from Cabriana’s back set, made it 18-all in the third frame.

Victoria Sports-UST, coming here short on manpower and in need of exposure, made one last stand in the third set when it raced from 6-all to 12-7 on Carla Sandoval’s scoring spree.

“We don’t know what happened in the third set, but somehow we were able to do what we’ve been doing in the first two sets,” ” said Kmezic.

From 16-18 deficit, Kmezic sparked a 5-0 run that caused the Tigresses to commit a string of errors.

“We are very motivated and focused on the court,” said Cabriana, the Cebuana setter who accounted for four points and 13 excellent sets.