Dabawenya Maddie Madayag will have her name etched in the annals of the Universities Athletics Association of the Philippines (UAAP).
The Ateneo Lady Eagles middle blocker made UAAP history after a stunning performance that saw her register 11 kill blocks against the University of Santo Tomas in the Season 81 women’s volleyball tournament.
The graduating ADMU blocker broke the longstanding record held by La Salle’s Celine Hernandez.
She finished the match on Wednesday night with 11 kills and an ace for a career-best 23 points. The Lady Eagles needed every single one, as they rallied from a two-set deficit to break the hearts of the Golden Tigresses in five sets, 19-25, 22-25, 27-25, 25-22, 15-11.
Afterward, Madayag could not quite believe her achievement.
“Seryoso? 11 blocks? I didn’t know that,” she said. “Oh my gosh, I’m speechless. I don’t know what to say.”
Madayag had finished as the league’s leading blocker after the first round of eliminations, with 0.78 block per set. But she was on another level on Wednesday, as she made life difficult for UST’s powerful pair of Sisi Rondina and Eya Laure, while also repeatedly rejecting Dimdim Pacres.
Indeed, her 11th block came at Rondina’s expense, giving the Lady Eagles a crucial 23-20 lead in the third set.
“I just played my game, I guess,” said Madayag. “I contribute whatever I can for the team, and I just gave it my all.”
“Gagawin ko lang kung anong kaya kong gawin for my team,” she stressed. “So kung sa blocking department tutulong ako.”
Madayag would then come up big on offense in the fifth set, as she scored three points including the running kill that gave Ateneo the lead for good, 11-10.
With her at the forefront, the Lady Eagles tallied a whopping 24 kill blocks — her fellow middle blocker, Bea de Leon, contributed six rejections of her own. “This is for my team,” Madayag said of her historic effort. “This is for the school, this is for the Lord and not really for myself, because it’s a team thing.”
