The Market Monitor Minding the Nation's Business
By Robert Andaya
UNIVERSITY of Santo Tomas, Adamson, University of Perpetual Help and Mapua battled their way to much-needed victories as the wild, wild race for the quarterfinal berths in the 2023 Shakey’s Super League Collegiate Pre-Season Championship Season 2 continued at the Filoil EcoOil Centre in San Juan.
UST outlasted reigning NCAA champion College of St. Benilde, 25-13, 22-25, 25-12, 25-22 to complete a three-game sweep of Pool C and lead the march of the favorites to the next round.
Adamson humbled NCAA runner-up Lyceum of the Philippines University 25-16, 25-16, 25-13, to claim its second straight win and secure the top spot in Pool B with still one game left.
Adamson’s victory and Lyceum’s setback also paved the way for the entry of Arellano University with 2-1 in Pool B as Lyceum (1-2) crashed out of contention.
Defending champion National University is also assured of a quarterfinal round berth with a 2-0 record in Pool A.
UST, which also won over NCAA teams Letran and the University of Perpetual Help System Dalta, relied on Jonna Perdido, who hammered 20 points on 20 attacks and two other players to sustain its unbeaten run.
Regina Jurado added 19 points and Angeline Poyoscontributed 17 points for UST, carries over a perfect record to the playoffs of the 16-team tournament supported by Mikasa, Eurotel, Victory Liner, Summit Bottle Water, Peri-Peri Charcoal Chicken, R and B Milk Tea, Potato Corner, Rebel Sports, Converge ICT Solutions and Genius Sports.
“Marami pa kaming rooms for improvement. ‘Yun ang pinakamaganda. Kailangan namin ng consistency na siya namang pinaka-importante (entering the next round),” said coach Kungfu Reyes as UST dominated St. Benilde with double-digit wins in the first and third frames.
A 7-2 finishing kick highlighted by Jurado’s crosscourt hit in the fourth set secured the win for the Espana-based Golden Tigresses.
In the first match, the Lady Falcons leaned on the trio of Lucille Almonte, Jimy Jean Jamili and Red Bascon with seven points each to beat the Lady Pirates in only 68 minutes.
With nine players also netting scores, Adamson hardly broke a sweat in following up an easy debut win against Arellano ahead of its last game against winless San Beda for a sweep bid.
“ It’s a good start for us na naka 2-0 kami kasi nakakakuha ng experience yung mga bago namin na madadala namin throughout the season. I-try pa rin namin i-blend yung chemistry ng mga bata papasok sa playoffs,” said JP Yude of Adamson, who finished third both in the SSL Season 1 and National Invitationals last month.
Gayle Pascual had 13 points for st. BEnilde, which skidded to 1-1 in Pool C with a crucial game left against Perpetual next Saturday.
Lyceum (1-2) fell short in advancing to the next round along with San Beda (0-2) in Pool B.
All games will be accessible across all platforms live and on-demand through the social media pages of Plus Network and SSL with Solar Sports, Blast TV and Aliw Channel 23 as TV partners.