Rookie Aleck Leabres delivered big time as Mapua University stunned twice-to-beat San Beda University, 25-22, 25-22, 25-21, in the NCAA Season 101 women's volleyball quarterfinals on Tuesday at the San Andres Sports Complex.
The first-year outside spiker came up with timely hits in the endgame as they dragged the second-seeded Lady Red Spikers into a deciding game on Friday, where the winner sets up a Final Four date with unbeaten Colegio de San Juan de Letran.
Leabres finished with 13 points while Freighanne Garcia and Nicole Ong each chipped in 12 markers with the former adding 18 digs and 13 receptions to finish with a triple-double outing.
"In-expect naman po namin na magbabago 'yung laro namin pero hindi po namin in-expect na ganito 'yung kakalabasan ng ensayo namin," Leabres told GMA News Online.
"'Yung past few trainings namin, ginawa na po namin 'yung best namin training pa lang. Sineseryoso po namin para makuha po namin 'yung mga kulang namin sa past games."
(We expected that our play would improve but we didn't expect this would be the result of our practice... The past few trainings, we gave our best even during the training. We took it seriously so that we could make up what we lacked in the past games.)
Mapua, which wound up third in Group A with a 5-8 card, surged to a 10-3 cushion early in the third frame thanks to a kill from Leabres, but the Lady Red Spikers turned to veteran Kat Molina as they unleashed a 4-1 rampage, 11-7.
A pair of errors from Mapua allowed San Beda to further trim the gap to two, 13-11, but the Lady Cardinals capitalized on three consecutive errors from the Lady Red Spikers to regain a 16-13 advantage.
San Beda continued to rally, forcing a 21-all deadlock after an attack infraction from Franchesca Esteban. Mapua, though, answered with a massive 4-0 closing run instigated by Garcia and capped by Leabres' cross-court hammer from the left side.
Angel Habacon starred in the loss with 16 points and 15 digs to emerge as the lone player fomr San Beda to reach a double-digit output.
—JMB, GMA Integrated News
