Tigresses punish Lady Stags to complete sweep

Sweet, sweet sweep. (Photo by Cheng Bigay/MatchPointPH)

By Josiah Israel Albelda (@sabinijosiah)

WHAT was supposed to be the Thrilla in Arena turned out to be not thrilling at all.

University of Santo Tomas waylaid erstwhile unbeaten San Sebastian College in three anticlimactic sets in what could be the fastest game of the 9th Shakey’s V-League first conference yet.

The Tigresses outgunned, outsmarted and dominated the Lady Stags, 25-12, 25-10, 25-21, tonight in just 58 minutes at the FilOil Flying V Arena in San Juan.

Attacking like tigers going after its prey, UST struck hard early and buried San Sebastian with its potent offense proving too much against the Lady Stags’ nonexistent defense.

The Recto-based squad was woefully bad against the Tigresses — their reception, attacking and on-court communication making them look like fresh meat thrown into a pack of hungry tigers.

Mary Jean Balse, Judy Caballejo and Thai import Utaiwan Kaensing scored in double figures quick as UST showered SSC-R with 40 hits and 10 service aces to go with its seven blocks.

Balse, Caballejo and Utaiwan posted 14, 13 and 12 points, respectively, with Balse accounting for four blocks, three aces and seven kills.

The Lady Stags’ Thai reinforcement, Jang Bualee, had a bad game by her standards, only managing to cough up 14 points — all on attacks.

Now, after a flamboyant 3-0 start, the SSC-R crew is back to the drawing board after suffering the worst loss of the conference. They have one week to prepare before plunging back to action next Thursday in the quarterfinals against Ateneo de Manila University.