MANILA, Philippines – The UAAP Season 81 volleyball women's finals set social media abuzz with the Ateneo Lady Eagles and the UST Golden Tigresses putting on a classic three-game duel.
Ateneo ultimately reclaimed the UAAP throne with a three-set drubbing of UST in the winner-take-all Game 3, and those who rose to the occasion did not go unnoticed by the volleyball community on Twitter.
With the help of TheNerve, a data insights company, 32,400 tweets geo-tagged to the Philippines from May 11 to 18, 2019 revealed all but one of the top 5 mentioned players were Lady Eagles.
Taking the top spot was Jules Samonte, who was criticized early in the series before redeeming herself by hammering down the championship point.
Samonte received a spike in mentions by around 5 pm of May 18 – the day of Game 3 – as she sealed the sweep of the Tigresses with an off-the-block hit.
Veterans Kat Tolentino, Bea de Leon, and Maddie Madayag, meanwhile, landed at 2nd to 4th places after playing key roles for Ateneo.
Tolentino and Madayag averaged 12.7 points and 11.0 points, respectively, through 3 games, while De Leon was hailed as the Finals MVP.
Rounding out the top 5 was season MVP and UST star Sisi Rondina, who left her all on her last UAAP season by norming 21.0 points in the finals. – Rappler.com
