MANILA, Philippines – National University (NU) pulled off a stunner over match favorite University of the Philippines (UP), but the Lady Bulldogs just wanted to show that they want to win so badly.

Stuck at the bottom half of the standings, the Lady Bulldogs think they can do more despite having a young ang shorthanded lineup. 

“Siguro ‘yung pagkapanalo namin [against UP], kaya naming patunayan na ‘yung bawat isa, may trust talaga na gusto manalo,” said rookie libero Jennifer Nierva.

“Kulang kami pero may gusto kami i-achieve na hindi namin sinasabi na ganito lang team namin kaya talo kami. Hindi, ginawa namin siyang motivation.” 

(I guess our win against UP is because we wanted to prove that we trust each other and everybody wants to win. We may have a depleted lineup, but we want to achieve something. We don’t reason out that we lost because our team is just like this. We use it as motivation.)

The Lady Bulldogs entered the season with a short 11-woman lineup. But the squad immediately suffered another big blow when starting setter Joyme Cagande succumbed to an ACL injury during their opening game against Far Eastern University.

NU’s leading scorer Ivy Lacsina also picked up a hand infection and had to rest a week before their game against University of Santo Tomas (UST).

NU head coach Norman Miguel said he just wanted to instill a renewed mentality on his young players – to just focus on their goal to improve.

“‘Yung after noong last game namin sa UST, ang pinag-usapan na lang namin is this time, it’s not [about] ‘yung last two games ng first round. It means that going to the second round, kailangan na namin magstep up talaga,” said Miguel.

(After our last game against UST, we talked about it and said that it’s not about the last two games of the first round. It means that going to the second round, we really need to step up.)

Now that they’ve arrested their three-game skid, the Lady Bulldogs – who are bannered by members of the UAAP juniors four-peat champion NU – hope to prove again that they can keep up with the big guns in the seniors division. – Rappler.com