MANILA, Philippines — The Far Eastern U Lady Tamaraws charged on to their first UAAP women’s volleyball finals stint in nine years after hammering out an impressive 25-20, 25-21, 14-25, 25-19 dismantling of third-ranked Ateneo last night in their Season 80 Final Four duel at MOA Arena.
Determined to cash in on the No. 2 seeding and win-once bonus semis the Lady Tams outplayed the Lady Eagles in every major department and quashed Ateneo’s late uprising to book the first ticket to the championship series.
As FEU ended nearly a decade of missing out the Last Dance, it also stopped the streak of Ateneo, which was seeking its seventh consecutive finals appearance.
“Pinaghirapan namin ito, pinlano talaga, nag-usap-usap kami, ang daming sinakrispisyo para makarating kami dito. Halos isang dekadang wala sa finals. Na-achieve naman namin (We worked hard for this, planned well, sacrificed a lot to get to this stage. For almost a decade FEU missed the finals and finally we achieved our goal),” said FEU coach George Pascua.
Bernadeth Pons provided the leadership anew and came through with another all-around performance of 17 points, 16 excellent digs, and 19 excellent receptions. Kyle Negrito tossed 28 excellent sets and Chin Basas gave Pons a huge lift on offense with 17 markers.
FEU outperformed AdMU in spikes, 40-35, blocks, 13-6, and service, 10-3, while doing a better job in reception, 34 versus 27.
“Sabi ko sa kanila against Ateneo, dapat as a team tayo. Sinabihan ko rin si Chin na kailangan niya mag-step up ka para balanse ang opensa, hindi lang si Pons kasi binabantayan siya, siya lahat, nagre-receive, pumapako, mauubos siya. Nagrespond naman (To beat Ateneo, we have to play as a team. I challenged Basas to step up so we’ll have balanced offense. We need to help Pons because she’s also receiving aside from attacking. Good thing, she responded),” said Pascua.
Kat Tolentino and Jho Maraguinot had 11 apiece for Ateneo.
In men’s play, Marck Espejo dished out a monstrous 55-point performance as resilient No. 3 Ateneo rallied past higher-ranked Final Four opponent Far Eastern, 18-25, 25-13, 24-26, 25-23, 15-9, to force a rubbermatch for a finals seat.
With their reign under heavy siege, four-time MVP Espejo simply took over, landing 47 hits from every conceivable angle, extracting six points from his net defense and scoring twice from the service line in a record-setting outing that kept AdMU’s title retention hopes alive and set the stage for the KO match on Wednesday.
Espejo dropped 10 in the decider, accounting for the team’s last four markers to put the finishing touches to probably the greatest individual effort in league history.