HISTORY REPEATS ITSELF EVEN IN BAD WAY FOR TIGRESSES
Some University of Santo Tomas (UST) diehards had held up a sign during the Golden Tigresses’ Final Four match against De La Salle University that read: History Repeats, 5/5/2019.
That streamer talked about how the Tigresses bundled out the defending champion Lady Spikers also in the same phase of the UAAP women’s volleyball tournament that year. Surely, those fans want a different ending this season.
But history certainly has a way of repeating itself, even in the most horrific ways.
Like five years ago when a super rookie in Eya Laure also helped Santo Tomas to the Finals, only to be injured in a gruesome way in one crucial play in Game 2 against Ateneo, a neophyte in Angge Poyos suffered the same fate early in the second set of Game 1 of this season’s title series against National University.
They got injured on different ankles, but both have and will debilitate the Tigresses in a huge way.
“It’s complicated,” was all coach KungFu Reyes could say when the Inquirer tried to press him through text messages about the condition of Poyos, a prime candidate to become the league’s third straight Rookie-MVP after National’s Bella Belen and La Salle’s Angel Canino.
Poyos, the team’s leading scorer with an average of more than 22 points a contest going into Game 1, never returned to the game like Laure did.
But like Laure, she was carried off the court and had to ride the team’s trolly out of Smart Araneta Coliseum to get to the team bus before being taken to the UST Hospital for some tests.
Laure did play in Game 3, but was not even half that player that she is as the Tigresses succumbed and lost.
This series is the latest chance for Santo Tomas to win a first title since 2010, when Aiza Maizo led them to the crown.
Left to carry the fight for the Tigresses are Reg Jurado, Em Banagua and Jonna Perdido, with the setting still to be done by Cassie Carballo and the defense anchored on Detdet Pepito.
Not like Laure’s
Game 2 of the Finals is slated on Wednesday at Mall of Asia Arena, and even though Reyes told other media outlets that the injury doesn’t look as bad as Laure’s did five years ago, having Poyos less than 100-percent certainly spells trouble for the Tigresses.
Santo Tomas is hands down the surprise package of the tournament, and Reyes had told reporters after that series-opening loss that he has the pieces that could step up for Poyos.
The Tigresses weren’t supposed to be here in the first place, they are, after all, a very young team that doesn’t have the height and experience like the other powerhouse schools.
And that’s the thing that could work in their favor come Wednesday, when they rally to play for Poyos and play like the proverbial wounded Tigresses.
Who knows, maybe the magic that Santo Tomas has been playing with for the season still hasn’t run out on Reyes and his intrepid crew.