MANILA, Philippines – Despite being sweeping the University of the East (UE) Lady Warriors, the De La Salle University (DLSU) Lady Spikers are still not satisfied with their performance especially after their loss to National University. 

The Lady Spikers are struggling particularly in the 3rd set relative to their previous games against the University of the Philippines (UP) Lady Maroons and the Far Eastern University (FEU) Lady Tamaraws. 

The reigning champs managed to sweep the Lady Maroons, but had to rally back from a 17-10 deficit in the last set before capping off the match with 3 straight service aces by Michelle Cobb. With the Lady Tamaraws, on the other hand, the Lady Spikers were two points away from taking the game in the 3rd set until Bernadeth Pons extended the match to 5 sets. 

“Yun nga. Let’s say alam mo nang patapos na, tapon pa ng serve. Let’s say na parang very complacent dahil lamang ng malayo. Hindi dapat mangyari ‘yun,” lamented head coach Ramil de Jesus regarding the Lady Spikers’ errors. 

(That’s it. Let’s say that you know that it’s almost done, but you commit a service error. Let’ say that you’re complacent because the score gap was wide. That’s not supposed to happen.) 

De Jesus was also disappointed with the Lady Spikers’ performance against UE, specifically because his squad allowed the Lady Warriors to stay close and make scoring runs out of their errors. 

Kim Dy also resonated with De Jesus that her team’s comeback after their loss to the Lady Bulldogs is not enough. 

“Kasi like sa game namin kanina, feeling ko hindi pa rin yun yung 100% namin kasi parang nung dumidikit sila, tumatahimik kami so I think that’s one thing we have to fix pa rin,” said Dy. 

(Because like in the game a while ago, I feel that it’s not yet our 100% because when they stay close to us, we just remain silent so I think that’s one thing we have yet to fix.)

Every time the Lady Spikers suffer a loss, De Jesus always gives an order to immediately pack up, leave the dugout and head back to La Salle. Dy recalled that they returned to training the next day with more determination, but De Jesus was unhappy to see that this attitude did not show during their match against NU. 

“You know right after we lost to NU, we went straight back to our gym to fix our mistakes,” said Dy.  “Siyempre doon pa lang lumabas yung tapang namin. Sinabi nga ni coach ‘bakit hindi kayo matapang nung game, bakit ngayon matapang kayo?’.” (Of course that’s the only time that our toughness showed. Coach asked us ‘why weren’t we tough during the game, why are tough only now?’)

As NU sits atop of the standings with a perfect record, it will take more effort for the Lady Spikers to get back to their championship form. DLSU will be facing the blue birds of the league for the remaining games of the first elimination round.

Their next game will be against the Adamson Lady Faclons on Saturday, February 24 at the Filoil Flying V Centre. – Rappler.com