Gorayeb steers NU belles to 5-set win
National University welcomed new coach Roger Gorayeb with a five-set win as the Lady Bulldogs upended the University of Santo Tomas Tigresses, 25-23, 25-22, 20-25, 22-25, 15-9, to even their card at 3-3 in the UAAP Season 77 women’s volleyball tournament at the MOA Arena yesterday.
Jaja Santiago punched in a seasonhigh 28 points, including the gameclinching hits, as she showed a hint at how instrumental her role will be under Gorayeb.
“I’ve been telling them, you have to maximize Jaja’s height. At 6-foot-4, she’s the tallest and we’re supposed to get five points per set from her,” Gorayeb said in Pilipino.
Gorayeb, who took over the coaching post just three days ago, arrived just after the first set was finished. He was caught in a traffic jam as he traveled from The Arena in San Juan, where he called the shots for San Sebastian in the NCAA a few hours before, over to the Pasay arena.
His wards got a 2-0 headstart upon his arrival but suffered a meltdown in the next two sets, enabling the Tigresses to force the decider.
“Thankful for the victory. I thought I would be the jinx because we dropped two sets when I arrived but fortunately, we pulled this off,” said Gorayeb.
“This was my first time to actually see them play. At first I’m letting them play the same way they’re used to but when we reached the fifth set, I started to impose my system,” he added.
Santiago opened the fifth with two straight points as the Lady Bulldogs seized a 12-3 cushion. UST mounted a rally and went to within 9-13 before the towering Santiago decided enough is enough and sent it home back-to-back for the clincher.
“As I told them, they have the skills but they just don’t know they have it. We can see in the game that they were a bit tentative but slowly we’ll try to correct their mistakes, it’s just a matter of redirecting them,” said Gorayeb.
Myla Pablo backstopped Santiago with 15 markers.
Rookie EJ Laure (16), Pamela Lastimosa (13) and Carmela Tunay (10) and Marivic Meneses (10) paced the Tigresses, who slipped to 1-5.
Later in the day, University of the Philippines snapped the three-game streak of Adamson, fashioning out a thrilling 22-25, 25-21, 29-27, 34-32.
Nicole Tiamzon scored 22 points while Kathie Bersola added 13 before going down with suspected ACL injury as the Lady Maroons finished the first round with 3-4.
The loss in the grueling two-hour, 23-minute match sent the Lady Falcons down to 3-3 in a tie for third spot with Far Eastern and NU.
“The hard work we’re doing in practice is paying off, hopefully it continues in the next round,” said UP coach Jerry Yee.