Lady Jaguars thumps Lady Navs in BBEAL women’s volley
UNIVERSITY of the Cordillera played beast mode the rest of the last three sets to claim the first finals seat in women’s volleyball of the Baguio –Benguet Educational Athletic League season 30.
After being down by a set, the UC Lady Jaguars summoned all their might to dispose a tough challenge by the Saint Louis University Lady Navigators in four seats, 21 – 25, 25 -15, 25 – 9, 25 -12 at the UC gymnasium Monday evening.
The season 29 runner up raced to an early 7-2 lead in the opening set but the Lady Jaguars cannot contain their errors as SLU turned the tide coring five an unanswered points to tie the ball game before closing out the Gov. Pack based squad in the first set.
Feeling urgency in their campaign, the Lady Jaguars came charging back to life with an early 14 -7 lead midway in the second set and stayed focus the rest of the game to tie the game at one set a piece.
“We almost let the game slip away because of our errors and at the same time, the team was already looking past
SLU that’s why we had a meltdown in the first set,” said coach Clarrissa Tolentino.
But Tolentino, before the start of the second set told her players to settle down and take their opponent seriously as they pummeled the Lady Navigators the rest of the way.
“Our adjustment was a big factor. When they were trying to speed up the game, our defenders were able to make quick change and be able to control the tempo,” added Tolentino.
With the win, UC is already awaiting the winner in the University of Baguio Lady Cardinals – Baguio College of Technology Lady Atoms which was playing as of press time.
But whoever wins, Tolentino said the team will come into the finals prepared and hungrier than ever after failing to win the championship for the last seven years.
“Kahit sino sa kanila. For us, it’s going to be a tough finals because we know what UB and BCT can do and that will be a hard match – up,” said the former setter.
UC earlier defeated the Lady Atoms in three sets during their first encounter in the last phase of the eliminations round while the defending champion Lady Cardinals easily disposed both teams to earn the top seed going into the semis. Roderick Osis