MANILA, Philippines – After tallying only two wins in the last 3 seasons and 5 games with former head coach Francis Vicente, the University of the East (UE) Lady Warriors broke barriers in their game against the University of Santo Tomas (UST) on Wednesday, March 7.

Here are the walls they smashed:

1. This is first time the Lady Warriors won back-to-back games since Season 74;
2. This is the first time the Lady Warriors won against the UST Tigresses in the Final 4 era;
3. Only in his 3rd game with the Lady Warriors, interim head coach Rod Roque’s two wins matches former UE head coach Francis Vicente’s win-loss record of 2-45.

“Perseverance! Patience! Tiyaga! Tiniyatiyaga nila unti-unti, ang laki ng lamang!,” praised Roque. 

(Perseverance! Patience! Hard work! They’re working on it slowly, the improvement is so big!) 

With the league’s leading libero Kath Arado fortifying the UE arsenal, the Lady Warriors can rely on her in having their floor covered. In Wednesday’s game, Arado made 28 excellent digs and 32 receptions against the Sisi Rondina-led UST squad. 

As of Wednesday, 4:30pm, Arado has made it to the top trends in the Philippines, being tweeted over 4,000 times. 

“Sobrang speechless pa ako simula noong last time eh. Sa akin lang talaga, gusto ko talaga ‘yung mabago talaga ang tingin nila sa UE,” replied Arado when asked about being the number one trending topic in the Philippines. 

(I’m still super speechless since last time. For me, I just want to change what people think about UE.) 

The 4th year player admitted that their first win in Season 80 against the Adamson Lady Falcons sparked the motivation for the Lady Warriors to follow coach Roque’s game plans and win their following games. 

“Yun talaga (Adamson win) ang nag-push sa amin sa training. Pagkabalik namin sa training talaga na, sinasabi namin: ‘o ganito ang gagawin natin’, tapos pinag-aralan talaga namin bawat isa (in UST). Tapos ‘yun na nga, team movement ang naka-focus kami,” explained Arado. 

(The Adamson win was the one that pushed us in training. When we got back to training, we were telling each other: ‘this is what we’ll do’ then we studied each player in UST. Then there, it was a team movement that we focused.)

“Discipline” has been a huge factor for the Lady Warriors in their past 3 games with coach Roque. All the long hours of training bore fruit and became “worth it” for Arado when she sees her team mates score off her defensive efforts. 

“Sobrang worth it po, sobra-sobrang worth it na lahat ng pagod na ginagawa namin sa training, sa game,” said Arado. 

(It’s super worth it. Really worth it that all the weariness from what we do in training, and in the game.)

“Nakikita mong naghihirap din ang teammates mo para lang mapuntos ang bola, kaya sobrang saya.” (You see that your teammates are also working hard so that they can score that’s why I’m happy.)

The Lady Warriors will have a break for more than a week as their next game against the Adamson Lady Falcons is on Sunday, March 18 at the Filoil Flying V Centre. UE will continue manifesting their mantra of discipline that will eventually show everyone what they’re capable of. 

“Lagi kaming sinasabihan ng mga coaches namin, lalo na si Sir Rod na enjoy lang kayo, disiplinahin niyo lang ang sarili niyo. Gumalaw kayo, kung ano yung gusto niyong gawin sa court, lalabas at lalabas kasi talaga, so ‘wag niyong pigilan na ilabas ang tunay niyong laro. Kaya free talaga kami,” said Arado. 

(The coaches always tell us especially Sir Rod that we should just enjoy and discipline ourselves. We should move and whatever we want to do on the court, it will just keep on showing so we shouldn’t stop ourselves from showing our true play. That’s why we’re really free.) – Rappler.com