UAAP PHOTO
MANILA, Philippines—Jian Salarzon and Abai Llenos together led Ateneo past the University of the Philippines winless with a score of 25-18, 25-21, 25-19, to end the first round with a high performance in the tournament. UAAP Season 85 men’s volleyball on Sunday at the Filoil EcoOil Center.
Salarzon, a rookie, led the way with 17 points courtesy of 14 strikes and three saves as the Blue Eagles finished the first round with a 3-4 record.
Llenos was also credited with 15 points from 12 attacks, two saves and an ace from 14 tackles, while Ken Batas added 11 points, including three saves.
“We are very happy and grateful to have been able to win this match, our last in the first round. Hopefully we can bring this momentum into the second round,” said Ateneo coach Timmy Sto. Thomas. “In the first round, we had a confidence problem for the whole team because most of our matches were very close. Our losses, we were leading, and then suddenly we fell.”
“Hopefully during this break comes the second round. We can still tweak that a little bit to reduce the kinds of fluctuations inside the pitch during the game,” he added.
Salarzon vowed to do better in the second round as they needed more wins to reach the Quarterfinals, holding fifth place behind the unbeaten National University (6-0), second seed University of Santo Tomas (6). -1), Far Eastern University (5 -2) and La Salle (4-2).
“Our mindset is to try our best in every match to make it to the Finals Round 4,” Salarzon said in Filipino. “I am very happy to be playing for my dream school. I can feel pressure because the level of competition here is different. But our senior teammates continued to push us into the field and give us courage.”
UP will shoot for its first win over unlucky Adamson on Wednesday at the Mall of Asia Arena.
The Fighting Maroons drew contributions from their bench with Ranz Cajolo leading with nine points, while Jessie Rubin, Ruskin Ijiran and Daniel Nicolas each added seven points.
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