MANILA, Philippines – The National University (NU) Lady Bulldogs may have a perfect 3-0 record in the UAAP Season 80 Women’s Volleyball tournament, but their wins haven’t been as perfect as they have hoped for.

The Lady Bulldogs were pushed to 5 sets in their first two games against blue birds Adamson and Ateneo, while the winless University of the East (UE) Lady Warriors were able to stun them by taking the second set in their game on Sunday, February 11. 

NU was locked at 18 points when UE sparked a 5-1 run to take the second set at 25-18. The Lady Bulldogs’ head coach Babes Castillo advised the girls to immediately forget about it to prevent them from feeling demoralized.

“[I said] forget about the second set, let’s move on. It’s already marked on the card, second set is done. So you have to take another approach [in the] 3rd set,” said Castillo. 

Jaja Santiago echoed Castillo and highlighted to her teammates the importance of bouncing back. Santiago traced their errors in the second set to their failure to follow Castillo’s game plan.

“Nakita rin namin na no’ng second set nawala kami sa game plan namin nila coach, which is ‘yung UE game namin, kailangan maging preparation namin sa next game,” said Santiago. 

(We saw in the second set that we were unable to follow coach’s game plan, which is this UE game should be our preparation for the next game.) 

NU’s last loss to UE was in Season 72. Being a veteran captain of NU, Santiago believes that this year’s UE team is different from past seasons as it is also composed of talented veterans.

During the 4th set, the Lady Bulldogs were two points away from taking the match, but the Lady Warriors still managed to cut the deficit.

“I think they [have] an equal amount of seniors doon. Sa amin, I think kami ang nagpahirap sa sarili namin. Parang gano’n ang nakita ko,” added Castillo. 

(I think they have an equal amount of seniors there. For us, I think we made it difficult for ourselves. That’s what I see.)

The Lady Bulldogs will face defending champions De La Salle University Lady Spikers on Sunday, February 18, at the Filoil Flying V Centre. – Rappler.com