UST Golden Tigresses’ Pia Abbu during a UAAP Season 87 women’s volleyball tournament game against Adamson Lady Falcons. –UAAP PHOTO
MANILA, Philippines—Some of the University of Santo Tomas’ main cogs in the UAAP Season 87 women’s volleyball tournament are facing some struggles off the court.
Just last week, Golden Tigress Regina Jurado played with the flu and most recently on Saturday, libero and team captain Detdet Pepito entered the post-game press conference coughing here and there.
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Fortunately, UST has someone to rely on in the form of senior spiker, Pia Abbu.
LIVE: UAAP Season 87 volleyball March 1 – UST vs Adamson, NU vs UE
The Golden Tigresses were able to subdue Adamson at Mall of Asia Arena after four sets, 25-21, 20-25, 25-13, 27-25, thanks to Abbu’s contributions to the ailing squad.
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“It’s important that I get to contribute because, of course, I’m a senior now,” said Abbu in Filipino with Inquirer Sports.
Angge Poyos and the UST Golden Tigresses in the UAAP Season 87 women’s volleyball tournament. –UAAP PHOTO
“I also want to lead them outside of the court because I’m an ‘Ate’ now, especially since our team has a lot of rookies. If some of us need to step up, we just do it with heart.”
Angge Poyos finished with a team-high 21 points and Jurado followed suit with 17 to her name but the Tigresses’ tight victory wouldn’t have come to fruition without Abbu’s significant numbers.
READ: UAAP: UST got its ‘grit’ back, says Pepito after repeat vs La Sale
Abbu finished with 10 points including two aces to fuel UST to a 3-1 card.
Don’t expect Saturday to be an isolated case, though.
As one of the squad’s bigger sisters, Abbu aims to be more than just a helping hand inside the taraflex but also outside of it.
“All of us are going through the same things [student-athlete life] so I always tell them to have things balanced because if they have time to do a lot of things, then maybe they can fit in some time for rest,” Abbu said.
Abbu and the Growling Tigresses look to have a vise grip of the second seed when they take on University of the Philippines on Wednesday at San Juan Arena.
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“We’ll stick to the system and our game plan for UP. We’ll prepare for them when we go back to training on Monday with the guidance of our coaches.”
