By NIKOLE JAVIER
University of the Philippines made short work of Mapua, 25-19, 25-21, 25-11, and swept the preliminaries in Pool A in the Shakey’s Super League Collegiate Pre-season Conference Sunday, Oct. 22, at the Rizal Memorial Coliseum.
The Fighting Maroons overwhelmed the Lady Cardinals in almost every aspect of the game to close Pool A elims a perfect 4-0 win-loss record.
Danica Celis, Jewel Encarnacion and Joan Marie Monares all finished with nine points for the Fighting Maroons.
In the other game, College of St. Benilde finally joined the winning column after two failed bids
in Pool D with a 25-12, 25-17, 25-19 win over Letran.
Down 16-13 in the third frame, the Lady Blazers quickly got on their feet to tie the count before Gayle Pascual and Mycah Go delivered the killer blows for the Taft-based crew.
Cydel Mae Catarig led the Lady Blazers with nine points off eight attacks and one block.
Despite UP’s convincing win coach Shaq Delos Santos rued the Fighting Maroons’ 27 errors. Most of their miscues came in the second set.
UP is joined by University of Perpetual Help in the next round where they will be bracketed in Pool E alongside Pool C qualifiers unbeaten reigning UAAP champion National University and Ateneo de Manila University. The top two squads in Pool B and Pool D will compose Pool F.
In the second round, teams will play another round robin against the squads they have not faced in the first round to determine their rankings in the knockout quarterfinals. The second round will begin next week.
