MANILA, Philippines – There are plenty of reasons why defending champion University of Santo Tomas (UST) and De La Salle University (DLSU) emphatically sit atop the women’s volleyball standings with identical 5-0 records. For the record, UST and La Salle lead the team statistical race in almost all departments, placing first or second, with still two games left in the first round.
The Tigresses and the Lady Archers emerged as the top spiking units at the end of the year, logging in efficiency marks of 34.39% and 31.97% respectively. La Salle had 217 spikes against only 51 faults compared to UST’s 227 hits and 91 faults.
La Salle also paced the league in blocks, tallying 3.12 denials (53 blocks, 67 faults, 214 rebounds) per set while UST followed suit with 2.95 rejections (57 blocks, 51 faults, 189 rebounds).
UST and La Salle tied with the most number of aces but the Lady Archers had only 343 serve hits against the Tigresses’ 380. Thus, La Salle took the first spot with a 2.18 norm per set compared to UST’s 1.95 percent.
In terms of reception, UST was peerless, as of latest count, norming a 35.63% rate hinged on 121 excellent ball and 154 serve receives with only 17 faults. La Salle was fifth with 24.36% (71 excellent, 149 serve reception, 14 faults).
Fifth-running Ateneo de Manila University (2-4) ruled the sets category, tossing in an efficiency rate of 18.29% (439 running sets, 512 still sets, 9 faults). UST checked in third at 13.74% (261 running, 342 still, 8 faults) followed by La Salle with 13.06% (222 running, 330 still, 7 faults).
Ateneo also fronted the pack in digs, posting an average of 16.08% (386 digs, 560 reception, 242 faults). UST again wound up third at 12.42% (238 digs, 394 reception, 129 faults) while La Salle was fifth with 11.71% (199 digs, 334 reception, 91 faults).
UST skipper Aiza Maizo continues to lead the individual scoring, registering 84 hits, 19 blocks, and 2 aces in five games. Adamson University’s (AdU) Angela Benting is second (91 hits, 4 blocks, 2 aces) followed by University of the East’s (UE) Mary Cristel Rosale (81 hits, 4 blocks, 4 aces), National University’s (NU) Maricar Nepomuceno (73 hits, 10 blocks, 3 aces), and Adamson’s Pau Soriano (70 hits, 10 blocks, 2 aces).
Rounding up the Top 12 are La Salle’s Jacqui Alarca, Ateneo’s Fille Cainglet, Far Eastern University’s (FEU) Rosemarie Vargas, University of the Philippines’ (UP) Carmela Lopez, DLSU’s Stephanie Mercado, UP’s Angeli Araneta, and NU’s Mervic Mangui.
Anthony Divinagracia, ABS-CBN News
