Lady Archers down Eagles in four-setter

MANILA, Philippines — La Salle stunned reigning champion Ateneo, 22-25, 25-23, 25-18, 25-20, to start its campaign with a bang in the UAAP Season 84 women’s volleyball opener at the Mall of Asia Arena yesterday.

Baby Jyne Soreño provided the spark off the bench with 17 points on 13 attacks and three blocks for the Lady Archers, who joined Santo Tomas (1-0) and National U (1-0) on the leaderboard after their big wins earlier in the day.

Alleiah Malaluan (15), Thea Gagate (11) and Mereophe Sharma (10) also chipped in double-figure outputs as the Lady Archers scored a repeat triumph over their fierce rivals after a 25-17, 17-25, 25-17, 25-15 win just before the COVID-19 pandemic halted UAAP Season 82.

“For us, the hardest game is usually the first one. It’s very important for us. We’re parading a new team so we’re still adjusting but we eventually found our groove and nagtuloy-tuloy na sa third and fourth sets,” said deputy coach Benson Bocboc, who spoke in lieu of head coach Ramil de Jesus.

Faith Nisperos, for her part, sizzled with 24 markers for the Ateneo team playing with new “Blue Eagles” moniker from previous “Lady Eagles.”

Ateneo president Fr. Roberto Yap SJ yesterday announced their decision naming all of the school teams “Blue Eagles” regardless of the sport, gender or age group.

“It is a recognition of the fact that each of our student athletes, whatever their sport or year level, represents the mens sana in corpore sano (sound mind in a sound body) ideal: excelling in the classroom and in the sporting arena, hallmarks of well-rounded Ateneo education and formation,” Yap said in a statement.