University of Santo Tomas’ Detdet Pepito during their UAAP Season 87 women’s ovolleyball clash against National University. Photo from UAAP Media.MANILA — University of Santo Tomas fell short of ending its UAAP Season 87 women’s volleyball first-round campaign in triumphant fashion.

Despite holding a 2-1 lead, the Golden Tigresses were outlasted by defending champions National University in a five-setter anew during their Season 86 Finals rematch on Sunday at the Araneta Coliseum.

The Kungfu Reyes-mentored team was not able to take advantage of their lead in the fourth set, with the Lady Bulldogs’ prowess on the attacking side getting the better of their España-based counterparts in that span, and this eventually led to UST falling in the decider.

READ: NU completes Round 1 sweep after reasserting mastery of UST in 5-setter

For Tigresses libero and team captain Detdet Pepito, a factor that led to this was UST’s performance on the receiving department.

“Sa skills, yung receiving namin kasi sobrang bumaba talaga siya,” said Pepito, who put up 24 digs and 13 receptions against Bella Belen and the Lady Bulldogs. “Very challenging siya kasi naging tactical lahat ng teams na i-iwas sa akin.”

After the first round, Pepito was the second-ranked player in the digging department (4.21 ave per set) and was the sixth-best receiver at 32.61% efficiency.

UST, as a unit, placed second as a team in digging with an average of 10.31 per set, but they were second to last in receiving efficiency with 22.10%, just 0.29% better than the eighth-placed University of the East.

For Pepito, this meant that there are still a ways to go for the Tigresses if they want to show success in the last half of the season.

“So talagang ano, dapat i-push namin yung team. Dati libero lang yung nag e-extra, pero lahat ng passers nag e-extra na,” she said. “Tapos, yung ka-diagonal rin ni [Angge] Poyos, kailangan naming makita yung perfect match. As of now, hindi pa rin namin makita.”

On the bright side, UST still finished at 5-2 in the team standings, just a few points away from the No.2 seed De La Salle University which also holds the same record.

And this, for Pepito, shows how promising things can be if they clean up and work on their lapses.

“Marami pa kaming pagtatrabahuhan. Tiya-tiyagain talaga namin, kasi unexpected naman na ganito yung magiging record namin,” the graduating libero said.

“Pangit yung pinakita namin nung first round, medyo naging okay naman nitong last game namin. Naging sukatan yung first round kung hanggang saan yung kaya namin,” she added.

Another silver lining for her was how they fairly stood against the taller Lady Bulldogs despite the loss.

“Itong game na ‘to, nag bigay ng kumpyansa sa team namin na kaya pala talaga namin kahit na maraming key players na wala,” Pepito pointed out. “Ang daming nawala sa amin, ang daming pang ipo-polish, pero yug result eh, nag fi-fifth set kami against a champion team.”

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