UST too much for UP

Angge Poyos and Kyla Cordora showed the way in University of Santo Tomas’ (UST) bounce-back win over University of the Philippines (UP), 25-14, 25-19, 25-21, to close the 2024 Shakey’s Super League Collegiate Pre-season Championship second round on a strong note Sunday at the Rizal Memorial Coliseum.

The Golden Tigresses primed up for the crossover quarterfinals with a huge victory to finish with a 2-1 win-loss record in Pool F.

Poyos and Cordora assured UST of a strong case for a twice-to-beat advantage in the next round after a scintillating performance of 11 and 10 points, respectively.

The Tigresses recovered from a frustrating loss to Far Eastern University (FEU) the day before.

UST will now wait for the final pool standings to know which two teams will be armed with incentives in the next stage of 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.

A tiebreaker will decide the rankings in case of a three-way tie at 2-1.

Poyos scored 10 of her points from attacks while Cordora had a spectacular outing of nine kills and a kill block for UST.

“Very happy with the win because it somehow took the heavy feeling we had after that loss to FEU. We just played our game and enjoyed our time inside the court,” said Cordora of the Tigresses’ return to the win column after watching their five-game win streak 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, Philippine Sports Commission 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.