UST thrashes UE in UAAP volleyball

UNIVERSITY of Santo Tomas (UST) sent winless University of the East (UE) on the brink of elimination with a 25-17, 25-16, 25-17 victory on Wednesday in the UAAP Season 85 women’s volleyball tournament at the SM Mall of Asia Arena in Pasay City.

Eya Laure did the heavy lifting for the Golden Tigresses with 17 points on 15 attacks, a block and an ace.

With a 6-3 win-loss card, UST moved to third place in the team standings, just half a game behind No. 2 Adamson University.

“This is a huge win for us because in the first round we started with a loss. We opened the second round with another loss but we bounced back today with a victory,” said head coach Kungfu Reyes in Filipino.

The Lady Warriors were up by a point at the second technical timeout of the third set before the Golden Tigresses unleashed a lethal finishing kick to win the set and complete the sweep.

Nine of the 11 UST non-libero players used by Reyes were able to score at least two points with middle blockers Imee Hernandez and Pia Abbu contributing eight and seven points, respectively.

KC Cepada and Van Bangayan were at the forefront of UE’s attack with 12 and 11 points, respectively, while Ja Lana added 10 points.

Jel Quizon and Kamille Dionisio were the only other Lady Warriors who were able to enter the scoring column with one point each as UE dropped to 0-9.

Up next for UST is the still-unscathed De La Salle University on Sunday at the Araneta Coliseum. UE will aim for win number one earlier that day against Far Eastern University.

Earlier in the men’s division, UST posted its sixth straight win after drubbing UE in four sets, 28-26, 25-16, 20-25, 25-22.

The Golden Spikers rose to 8-1 overall, while the Red Warriors fell to their sixth straight loss at 2-7, in the sixth spot.