University of Santo Tomas bounced back from a previous setback by crushing University of the Philippines in straight sets, 25-14, 25-19, 25-21, to end the second round of the 2024 Shakey’s Super League Collegiate Pre-season Championship on a positive note Sunday at the Rizal Memorial Coliseum.
The Golden Tigresses staved off the Fighting Maroons’ attempt to extend the match late in the third set to finish Pool F with a 2-1 win-loss record.
UST recovered from a frustrating loss to Far Eastern University the day before to boost its bid for a quarterfinals twice-to-beat advantage in the tournament backed by Shakey’s Pizza Parlor, GCash, Chery Tiggo, F2 Logistics, Peri-Peri Charcoal Chicken, Potato Corner, R and B Milk Tea and Summit Water.
The Tigresses will now wait for the final standings of FEU and UP at the end of the round robin first phase of the playoffs to determine which two teams will advance into the crossover quarters armed with incentives. A tiebreaker will decide the rankings in case of a three-way tie at 2-1.
Angge Poyos scored 10 of her 11 points from attacks while Kyla Cordora had a spectacular performance with 10 markers built on nine kills and a kill block for UST.
“Sobrang saya na nanalo kasi mabigat sa feeling ‘yung pagkatalo namin kahapon. Ang naging mindset namin is just play our game and dapat masaya sa loob nng court,” said Cordora of the Tigresses’ return to the win column after watching their five-game winning run snapped.
After breezing past the first two sets, UST had to slug it out with UP in the third frame.
The Fighting Maroons took a 19-18 lead after scoring three straight points.
UP was still up, 21-20, following a Nina Ytang kill before Poyos ignited a closing 5-0 blast as the Tigresses sealed the crucial victory in the competition which has Smart Sports, PLDT Fibr, Mikasa, Asics, Rebel Sports, Eurotel, Victory Liner, Commission on Higher Education (CHED), Philippine Sports Commission (PSC), and SM Tickets as technical partners.
The Fighting Maroons failed to sustain the momentum of their sweep of Ateneo de Manila University last Saturday and dropped to a 1-1 card.
Middle blocker Kassandra Doering paced UP with 11 points while Ytang finished with eight.
UP will face FEU on Wednesday at the close of the second round.
SSL games are aired live and on-demand via Puso Pilipinas, SMART Livestream, Solar Sports Channel 70 on Sky Cable and Channel 59 on Cable Link.
Games Wednesday (Rizal Memorial Coliseum)
11 a.m. –- NU vs UE
2 p.m. — UP vs FEU
5 p.m. — CSB vs La Salle
