NATIONAL University seeks to make history as the first school to complete a golden double in nine years as it tries to close out the UAAP Season 86 women’s and men’s volleyball Finals series against University of Santo Tomas today (Wednesday) at the SM Mall of Asia Arena.
Ateneo was the last school to sweep the volleyball titles in 2015, when Alyssa Valdez’s squad went 16-0 in that season while Marck Espejo gave the Katipunan-based side a breakthrough men’s cham- pionship.
Whether the Lady Bulldogs’ re- demption tour will end at 4 p.m. re- mains to be seen, as the Tigresses hope to fight back with all the un- certainty of Angge Poyos’ Game 2 status.
Poyos went down with a right ankle injury in the Finals opener after stepping on teammate Em Banagua’s foot upon landing in the second set with UST and NU level at 11-11.
Poyos never returned in the match which the Lady Bulldogs won, 25-23, 25-20, 25-20, and finished with seven points and eight digs.
The 5-foot-8 open spiker had to be helped out of the playing court and later was seen wearing a walking boot.
Poyos’ injury gave the Ti- gresses war flashbacks five years ago in their championship series against the Blue Eagles when Eya Laure suffered a sprained ankle in Game 2.
“Part ‘yun ng laro na, unfor- tunately, nakaapak ng kasama. Medyo unusual, pero nandiyan na, so moving forward, kailangan lang naming may mag-step-up,” said Reyes.
“Kung ma-miss out niya ‘yun, sayang ‘yung experience itself. So hopefully, maging motivation ‘yun sa kanila na mag-step up hindi lang isang tao, kungdi ‘yung grupo.”
Games Wednesday
(SM Mall of Asia Arena)
2 p.m. – UST vs NU (Men’s Finals)
4 p.m. – NU vs UST (Women’s Finals)
