With the departure of major key players, the BaliPure Purest Water Defenders will weave through the 13th Shakey’s V-League Reinforced Conference with a few new faces to banner.
The 2016 Open Conference bronze medalists opened their V-League campaign Saturday night against UST in which they lost in a surprising manner, 25-21, 21-25, 23-25, and 13-25.
Bali Pure team captain Charo Soriano, who is now back as a player after serving as a coach in the Open Conference, admitted the lapses they committed that helped UST pull an upset.
“I think we lost our defense,” Soriano told reporters moments after the match. “We were not also receiving, so the sideout was not happening as we would’ve expected.”
“They scored consecutive points on us, so we need to work on our defensive pattern and our reception,” pointed out the Atenean alumnae.
The veteran open spiker had nothing but utmost respect and praises for the Tigresses after the major upset in their debut match.
“We have very high respect for UST. They’re a very good collegiate team. They’ve been training for a very long time now, and they’re very solid.”
“It’s an eye-opener for us that we need to do better [and] play better,” quipped Soriano.
The Purest Water Defenders lost two key players in the offseason in ace spiker Alyssa Valdez and Open Conference MVP Grethcel Soltones, but were able to acquire the services of middle blocker Sue Roces and two foreigners in Katherine Morrell and Kaylee Manns.
Despite Valdez and Soltones’ departure, Soriamo still remains positive with the current composition of Bal iPure.
“We lost some offense. But we’re slowly getting better in terms of offense with players like Sue [Roces],” she said.
Even with three new stalwarts thrown into the mix, Soriano does not see any problem as far as team chemistry is concerned, but admits that BaliPure still has a long way to go to click as a solid unit.
“I think everyone [in the league] naman is having problems with jelling, but with them naman [imports], as long as we keep a positive attitude then I think we can play better in our succeeding games.”
“We still have to work hard in terms of working as one unit, not just individually. We’re banking on training and spending time together,” Soriano furthered.
With their first match already in the books, Soriano and Bali Pure looks forward to further learnings and developments as the import-laden conference goes along.
“Siguro if we’re able to get our defensive patterns, I look forward to more combination plays. We’ll stick to basics and we’ll work on our defense and reception.”
“So I look forward to the time that we will be able to do those things that we want to do,” ended Soriano.
