The FEU Lady Tamaraws welcomed back head coach Tina Salak with a resounding win over last year’s finalists UST as the UAAP Season 87 women's volleyball tournament gets going.
The FEU Lady Tamaraws asserted their position as title contenders with a big win over Season 86 finalists UST Golden Tigresses, 25-19, 16-25, 25-14, 25-20, in their opening game of UAAP Season 87 at the Mall of Asia Arena in Pasay City on Saturday.
The Lady Tamaraws showed refined form led by the scoring of Gerzel Petallo, who played an all-around game to finish with 15 points built off of eight attacks, five blocks, and two aces. Tin Ubaldo also steadily manned the distribution of offense with FEU clicking on all cylinders.
FEU finished the match on a 9-2 run, with back-to-back errors from the Golden Tigresses dooming UST in set 4.
Player of the Game Petallo keyed FEU’s comeback in the fourth with back-to-back points after the second technical timeout to get the Lady Tams within one point, 15-16.
The Lady Tamaraws thus kick off Season 87 with a bang at 1-0 while the Golden Tigresses, who are missing key cogs in Jonna Perdido and Xyza Gula due to injury, falter early at 0-1.
FEU will shoot for 2-0 when the Morayta-based squad face the UP Fighting Maroons on Wednesday, February 19, at the FilOil EcoOil Centre in San Juan.