UNIVERSITY of Santo Tomas overcame moments of complacency to roll back University of Perpetual Help System Dalta, 25-12, 21-25, 25-15, 25-21, at the start of the 2023 Shakey’s Super League (SSL) Collegiate Pre-Season Championship Season 2 at the Filoil EcoOil Centre in San Juan.

Angeline Poyos, Kyla Cordora and Regina Jurado joined hands and played well together for the Golden Tigresses, who swept the last two sets after yielding the second set to the hard-fighting Altas in the 16-team tournament organized by Athletic Events and Sports Management Inc. (ACES) un cooperation with the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) and the Philippine Sports Commission. (PSC).

Angeline Poyos, the Best Outside Hitter in the SSL National Invitationals where the Golden Tigresses finished third, finished with 20 points on 16 hits.

Cordora added 13 points and Jurado contributed 11 points in UST’s winning start in the tournament supported by Mikasa, Eurotel, Victory Liner, Summit Bottle Water, Peri-Peri Charcoal Chicken, R and B Milk Tea, Potato Corner, Rebel Sports, Converge ICT Solutions and Genius Sports.

“Medyo marami pang kailangang ipagpag, especially sa second unit,” said UST coach Kungfu Reyes, referring to the team”s second set meltdown after winning the opener by 13 big points.

“Actually, wala namang nabago sa (2nd unit) namin. ‘Yun pa rin yung naglaro last time. Kailangan lang namin ayusin. Though nanalo, it’s a good game. A win is a win. Next game is Monday so kailangan maayos namin ‘yung galaw namin.”

NCAA MVP Mary Rhose Dapol and Winnie Bedaña led the fight for Perpetual Help with 11 and 10 points, respectively.

Dapol and Bedaña struck hardest in the second set as Perpetual Help kept the game interesting with its own hot start at 8-3 to equalize the match at 1-1.

But Jurado, Cordora and Jonna Perdido combined in another UST breakaway for a dominant 10-set victory.

UST again nearly wasted what seemed a comfortable 23-16 lead. In the fourth set, before Perdido came through to finish it off .

UST shoots for a 2-0 mark against Letran on Monday while Perpetual takes a long break before plunging back to action against the same team next Monday. Back-to-back NCAA champion College of St. Benilde is the other team in Pool C.

All games will be accessible across all platforms live and on-demand through the social media pages of Plus Network and SSL with Solar Sports, Blast TV and Aliw Channel 23 as TV partners.

AUTHOR PROFILE

Robert Andaya