Ending at second place was the fate of the University of Santo Tomas Tigresses after facing off with the Ateneo Lady Eagles in the Finals of the ninth season of the Shakey’s V-League. The game was held today, June 10, 2012, at The Arena located in San Juan.
But it was a game well played for the Tigresses as it lasted for five sets, with their opponent taking the first two sets at 25-19 and 25-14. Scores for the third and fourth sets were 25-17 and 25-20, respectively. Fifth set scores were 15-13.
Loss of the Tigresses for the first two sets may be attributed to the open areas on their side seen by the Lady Eagles. They also made seven errors in both sets with lower number of blocks and attacks compared to the Ateneo players. Alyssa Valdez and Phee Nok Kesinee gave the Thomasian players difficult times as both mostly made the attacks on them.
But come the third set, the Tigresses have gotten over the pressure they were feeling as they played better. Points and defenses were mostly done by Loren Lantin and Judy Caballejo. In the fourth set, Ateneo did some reception errors giving UST more chance to score. Notable plays in the set were done by Mary Jean Balse, who tied the set at 14, and Caballejo, who made a service error but made a good attack right after. Maika Ortiz made two good service, making the team score 18 versus 16 of the Lady Eagles.
The fifth set of the game proved to be very intense as the two teams fought neck to neck. Kaensing Utaiwan tied the Tigresses’ score with the lady Eagles at 13. But Ateneo advanced to 15 after the tie.
The game was able to fill The Arena with audiences distinguished by their yellow and blue balloons, with Thomasians watching the game cheering all throughout. Live streaming even reached more than 7830 views.
This win of Ateneo brings them a back to back championship.
