MANILA, Philippines – Every single time. It has been straights sets after straight sets which explain Adamson’s defeat to La Salle. Again and again. 

For the first time in many years, the Adamson Lady Falcons put a halt to their losing streak against the 10-time champions De La Salle University Lady Spikers. (READ: Adamson Lady Falcons upset reigning champions DLSU)

The Adamson Lady Falcons are celebrating after pulling off a big upset over the reigning champions DLSU Lady Spikers. #UAAPSeason80 @RapplerSports pic.twitter.com/bybFRTU7I5

— Bee Go (@beebeego09) February 24, 2018

Adamson’s rise to fame this Season 80 began when their floor defense caught the attention of many. This season, the Lady Falcons have been breaking boundaries starting from when they exceeded their Season 79 record  of one win to beating the volleyball giants Far Eastern University and DLSU. 

Although the San Marcelino-based team was making history, their emotions ran too high, causing them to slump down to a two-game losing streak against University of Santo Tomas and Ateneo.

It’s been exactly a week since the Lady Falcons suffered the two-game-winning-streak-halting loss to the Tigresses. Head Coach Air Padda described it as the “hardest” week for her and girls in her two years of coaching Adamson. 

“This is the hardest week we had by far. not just because of the inconsistency with our play, our trainings haven’t been the best, we haven’t been focused, it’s hard coaching them this week,” lamented Padda.

But everything just bore fruit when the Lady Falcons played the game of their lives. They hungered for the win.

More than just showing what their floor defense was capable of and their rejuvenated passing skills, their eagerness to win gelled the team together. The players themselves did not notice that they rallied back from a deficit with a 14-3 run in the 3rd quarter. 

“Tinuloy lang namin ang trabaho. Hindi pa naman kasi tapos ang laban. Lagi naming sinasabihan ni Coach Air na hindi mananalo ang isang team kung isang set lang or dalawang set lang,” said team captain Jema Galanza. 

(We just continued our work. The game was not over. Coach Air always tells us that a team is not going to win with one set or two sets only.) 

Padda also agreed that the 3rd set changed everything. DLSU took the second set, where most of their 10 service aces came from. The African-Amercian coach already thought to taking her captain out of the 3rd set because of struggles with reception and the Lady Spikers started targetting her to get to a 16-11 advantage. 

“I got it” was what Galanza just said to coach at that turnaround moment. 

“I think the girls instead of collapsing, they started helping each other,” said Padda. 

“Fhen (Emnas) started taking in control. She was the bus driver. She was directing traffic, she was playing games with those blockers. She was finding Eli (Soyud), she was finding Joy (Dacoron) and I think we were serving tougher because I noticed that La Salle’s frist ball started to struggle. And that’s when we started stopping them at the net a lot because they were setting a lot of high balls.” 

It is another emotional victory for the Lady Falcons, but they now know that they shouldn’t repeat past their collapse. They will be facing the winless University of the East Red Warriors in their last first elimination round game on Sunday, March 4, and Padda doesn’t plan on underestimating them. 

What Padda and her squad plan on doing is sustaining that A-game they showed on the court against DLSU by believing that it makes the school proud. 

“Today, we really made it about making the school proud. It’s not about the name on your back, it’s about this: *taps her heart*. – Rappler.com