De La Salle-College of Saint Benilde head coach Jerry Yee and veteran outside spiker Gayle Pascual gave lots of credit to setter Cloanne Mondoñedo, who has been the silent operator in their NCAA Season 98 campaign.
The third-year setter is the leading player in the position with 5.45 average sets, a huge factor why the Lady Blazers have been near-invincible with a 9-0 record after the elimination round and a Game 1 victory against Lyceum of the Philippines University in the women's volleyball finals.
For Pascual, who also is among the leaders in terms of scoring and spiking, Mondoñedo is a big reason behind their excellent showing, both individually and as a team.
"'Yung performance ni Cloanne kanina, masaya ako kasi maayos ‘yung distributions niya na lahat ng teammates ko, nabibigyan niya. So kalat-kalat ‘yung points namin, parang naglaro talaga kami as a team and nagtiwala sa isa’t-isa," Pascual shared.
"Kaya rin siguro naging madali today para sa amin kasi hindi lang ‘yung outside ‘yung laging pumapalo, meron din kaming middle."
"Hindi naman kami mage-excel kung wala ‘yung setter namin."
("I'm happy about Cloanne's performance today because she distributed it well to all of our teammates. The points were spread out and we really played like a team and trusted each other... That's why it became easy today for us, we didn't have just the outside hitters, we also had the middle... We wouldn't be able to excel if we didn't have our setter.")
Their coach echoed Pascual, with Yee saying Mondoñedo is the best setter for him.
"I think leading naman siya sa setting, ‘yung team namin leading sa setting and then ‘yung top two spikers ng liga ay top two in terms of percentage ay kuha naman ni Clo," the champion coach said.
"So tiwala naman ako kay Clo e. Sa amin, si Clo ang best setter namin."
("I think she is leading in setting, our team is leading in setting and the top two spikers in the league, Clo has... So I trust Clo. And for us, Clo is our best setter.")
—JMB, GMA Integrated News
