UST eyes stunner vs La Salle in UAAP women’s volleyball showdown

MANILA, Philippines -- David versus Goliath.

In a battle of undefeated teams, the UST Golden Tigresses will be going for broke against the defending champions La Salle Lady Spikers.

The two teams will be battling on Sunday, 3 p.m., at the Mall of Asia Arena.

UST head coach Kung Fu Reyes said that their big win over the UE Lady Red Warriors on Wednesday will be a big boost for the upset queens.

"We will be bringing this to our game against La Salle. We know that this battle will be like David versus Goliath," Reyes told reporters in Filipino.

The mentor stressed that they will need to play good defense against the Lady Spikers, who are yet to drop a set so far this season.

"We will fight in terms of the net defense. What's important is we will play to win, because if we are just playing for the sake of it, we will not win over La Salle," Reyes said.

"For sure, we will give them a good fight," he added.

In their season debut, UST scored a big three-set upset against last season's runners-up, the National University Lady Bulldogs.

And on Wednesday, the Golden Tigresses needed four sets against the gritty UE.

Rookie Angeline Poyos acknowledged that the height discrepancy between the two teams is big.

Despite this, they will be fighting tooth and nail as they try to win the marquee matchup.

"The height difference is big, but on our part, we know that we can defeat them because even though we are smaller, we will bank on speed and our smarts," Poyos, who had 24 points against the Lady Red Warriors, said.

UST's x-factor Xyza Gula, for her part, said that they will use "heart to win."

La Salle's Angel Canino underscored that while the Espana-based volleybelles are all brave and will go down swinging, they are aiming to dominate their opponents.

"We want to dominate what they have, and we have to work doubly hard because we know they will not give up."