UNIVERSITY of Santo Tomas has done what any UAAP men’s volleyball fourth seed in the past failed to do.
The fourth-ranked Golden Spikers completed their upset of top-seeded Far Eastern University Tamaraws, winning the rubber match, 25-18, 21-25, 26-24, 26-24, to reach the Season 86 Finals on Wednesday at the SMART Araneta Coliseum.
This is the first time since the Final Four format in the sport was institutionalized in 2004 that a fourth seed entered the finals.
READ: NU takes down La Salle, reaches ninth straight UAAP Finals
UST shocked FEU last Sunday in straight sets, 25-23, 25-19, 28-26, to force a do-or-die.
UST will begin its best-of-three Finals series against four-peat-seeking National University, which ousted De La Salle University earlier in the day 25-23, 22-25, 25-22, 25-21, on Saturday at the Big Dome.
This is a rematch of last year’s Finals where the Bulldogs swept the Golden Spikers. This season, though, UST is 2-0 against NU.
“Actually, I just let them play the whole match, kaunti lang yung interference ko. I was actually a cheerleader earlier not their coach. I let them play and they delivered,” said Golden Spikers head coach Odjie Mamon.
There will be two UST volleyball teams in the Finals for the first time since the 2010-11 season as the Golden Tigresses earlier made it to the women's title round.
But to get this win, UST needed to overcome a lot including a long lull late in the second set due to an FEU rotational fault and a Gboy De Vega “intentional fake serve”. It resulted in a red card for De Vega and a yellow card for Tamaraws head coach Edd Orcullo.
FEU, though, used that as an advantage as it equalized with a 25-21 second frame but that would be it for them as UST managed to find ways in the third and the fourth.
In the third frame, De Vega delivered the Golden Spikers to the win with back-to-back hits, 26-24.
Then in the fourth, Sherwin Umandal came alive, rallying UST back from a 19-22 hole to 23-all followed by De Vega’s tip that sent them to match point.
The Golden Spikers almost won in the ensuing play as Rainier Flor hit a floating ball but was called for a net touch.
Umandal and De Vega finished the job as they went off-the-block on consecutive occasions for the win in two hours and 23 minutes.
“Yung game talagang pinaghandaan namin maigi yung mental toughness. Nagawa namin pihitin yung bagay na dapat itono talagang kinapos lang,” said Orcullo as he shifted Benny Martinez to the starting setter role, tossing 22 excellent sets.
Josh Ybañez led UST with 19 points and 13 receptions while De Vega unloaded 18 points and 13 receptions as well.
Umandal made 16 points while Popoy Colinares added 12 points.
Dryx Saavedra paced FEU with 20 points while JJ Javelona and Andrei Delicana had 16 and 12 points, respectively.
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