Mapua University is taking the NCAA Season 100 volleyball tournaments by storm with both its women's and men's teams making waves after the first round of elimination.
And two veterans showed the way the past two weeks as middle blocker Nicole Ong and outside spiker Barbie San Andres steered their respective Mapua squads atop the team standings.
Ong was a force at the net against three-time women's volleyball defending champion De La Salle-College of Saint Benilde last April 3, posting 14 points built on 12 attacks and two blocks for a 25-20, 11-25, 27-25, 25-21 win.
The two-time Best Middle Blocker then followed it up with 10 markers to star in another upset, this time against Perpetual as they captured their seventh straight win to improve to 7-2 and tie the Lady ALTAs, Benilde, and Letran in joint first.
Ong defeated teammate Nadine Berces, Arellano's Pauline De Guzman, and LPU's Johna Dolorito in the recognition also backed by Discovery Suites and World Balance.
In the men's division, San Andres continued his steady performance to help the Cardinals end the first half of the season with a spotless 9-0 win-loss record.
The fourth-year winger poured a triple-double outing of 27 points, 13 receptions, and 10 digs as they pulled off a 25-17, 21-25, 28-26, 26-24 victory over erstwhile undefeated Benilde.
San Andres picked up where he left off the next game by pouring 20 markers against defending champion Perpetual in a five-set thriller, 25-20, 31-33, 25-16, 21-25, 15-11.
San Andres edged out fellow Cardinal Juancho Barba, Letran’s Bembem Bautista, and Arellano’s Jiwen Sinuto for the weekly citation being deliberated and voted upon by print and online media regularly covering the collegiate beat.
The league is now on a short break in observance of the Holy Week as the second round of elimination is set to commence next week.
—Bea Micaller/JMB, GMA Integrated News
