It’s an old addage in sports: Don’t let the referees decide the outcome of the match.
Officials, just like players, are prone to making mistakes, but bad calls in a crucial part of a match are truly frustrating.
This was excatly the cause of the ire of an exasperated Air Padda after her Adamson Lady Falcons edged out the UE Lady Warriors in five sets.
The American coach was quick to point out several missed calls in a tight fifth set that almost cost her team the lead. She also recalled two bad calls in their five-set loss to the UP Lady Maroons that could have won them the match.
“I thought the team did a good job fighting, especially in the fifth set, not letting UE go on point runs and keeping the lead. I do believe we almost lost the set because of the bad refs, that’s what I do believe,” the second-year Lady Falcons head coach lamented.
“I do believe we lost the fifth set to UP because of the refs. I do believe there were two controversial calls, that you can’t make those calls in the fifth set. You need to be perfect as a ref and I believe the fifth set loss against UP was because of them.”
While she admits that her squad has faced a lot of adversity leading to their recent slide, Padda just could not let the bad officiating slip.
“You cannot do that in the fifth set, and it pisses me off, it does,” she furthered.
“Because I’m not saying I have all the respect in the world for the refs out here, but during a fifth set, you can’t let stuff like that go.”