MANILA, Phillippines – Upon waking up from their nightmare, the University of Santo Tomas (UST) Golden Tigresses have finally made their first back-to-back wins in the season as they downed first round leaders National University (NU) Lady Bulldogs on Sunday, March 25. 

The Tigresses, especially stalwart Sisi Rondina, are reaping the benefits of the returns of their injured players outside hitter Milena Alessandrini and libero Rica Rivera. In the last set against NU, the Tigresses locked down the Lady Bulldogs to only 9 points as Rondina and Alessandrini combined to lift UST. 

The achievement may just be back-to-back wins, but for UST head coach Emilio “Kung Fu” Reyes, it was as if they were already champions because the team is united once again. 

“Parang naging back-to-back champion kami na okay na yung mga player namin. At least buo kami, patalo o panalo, basta buo kami lalabas, yun yung importante,” said Reyes. 

(It’s like we became back-to-back champions because our players are okay already. At least we’re together again, win or lose, as long as we’re together, that’s what’s important.) 

Even though they cannot change what has happened in the past, the Tigresses still hoped that their success could’ve come sooner. However, Rondina believed that their sufferings in the first round helped them get to where they are now, which includes sending NU to its 4th straight loss. 

“Kasi meron kaming quote how ‘everything happens for a reason’, so ayun, ito siguro yung tiyaga namin, yung mga inaantay namin at medyo konting sad lang na ngayon lang dumating na ganito, pero overall masaya kami kasi may natutunan kami sa mga past na talo naming games,” said Rondina. 

(Because we have a quote how ‘everything happens for a reason’, so there, this maybe is our hard work, it’s what we have been waiting for and it’s just a bit sad because it only came now, but overall, we’re happy because we learned something from our past losses.)

The good result against NU was also a big boost to the Tigresses’ confidence, as Reyes mentioned that the team was in the verge of losing their respect for themselves due to their 5-game losing streak. 

“This time naman, ipaglalaban namin ang respeto namin para sa sarili namin na parang medyo kasi kapag wala sa amin, nagkakaproblema kami. This time, mas malaki yung effect ang pagkapanalo na ito,” said Reyes. 

(This time, we’re going to fight for our respect for ourselves because if it’s not with us, we get problems. This time, the effect is greater because of this win.) 

With the 3 more games in store for them, the UST team focuses on its philosophy of ‘what’s important now’. Whether it’d be the past injuries or the errors they had committed during the game, the Golden Tigresses will leave them all behind in the past. 

“Di na namin maibabalik ang nakaraan, so sabi nga yung ‘what’s important now,’ yun yung pagtratrabuhin namin. Yung remaining 3 games para sa amin, pagtratrabuhin namin at siyempre ulit yun yung hinihintay namin na maibabalik nila yung respeto nila doon sa mga bata na ‘you are capable of something’,” said Reyes. 

(We can’t bring back the past so they say ‘what’s important now,’ that’s what we’ll work on. Our remaining 3 games, for us, we’re going to work for it and of course, we will be waiting for the respect  for the kids to come back, it’s that ‘you are capable of something’.) 

It will not be an easy last stretch for the Golden Tigresses as they have yet to face top teams Ateneo  and De La Salle University while their last elimination round game against Adamson could be the determination if both teams would make the play-offs. 

UST will square off against the Ateneo Lady Eagles on Wednesday, April 4, at the Filoil Flying V Centre. – Rappler.com