Alyssa Solomon could not be more proud of her fellow Lady Bullpups for helping bring the winning culture that they built-in high school over to the senior level.
“Nakakaproud kasi as a rookie, kasi yun nga nadadala namin,” said the 20-year-old Solomon, who dropped a game-high 20 points in National University’s four-set, 25-20, 25-17, 13-25, 25-13 win over Adamson University on Thursday.
Aside from snagging the team’s 11th consecutive win, the Lady Bulldogs have also secured one of the two twice-to-beat incentive in the Final Four.
If they sweep the entire elimination round, NU will get an outright spot in the finals and bag its first top-two finish since Jaja and Dindin Santiago led the Lady Bulldpups to the Season 76 finals which saw them fumble a twice-to-beat advantage against Ateneo.
Aside from Solomon, a couple of rookies in Mhicaela Belen and Camilla Lamina — both of whom have been stellar for the Lady Bulldogs all season long — also contributed to the win. The former had 18 points and 11 excellent receptions while the latter recorded 26 excellent sets to go along with three markers.
But it’s not just the newcomers according to the 6-foot-2 opposite spiker, who also gave credit to their seniors for guiding them all throughout the season.
“Pero nandiyan naman yung mga seniors namin para i-guide [kami] kung ano pa yung mga kailangan pa naming gawin and yung mga nao-observe nila na kulang pa sa amin,” said Solomon.
“Every game, nacha-challenge kami na yun nga, yung character din ng kalaban na ayaw din nilang mag-patalo so kami rin dapat ‘di rin kami dapat mag-patalo,” she added.
After winning the first two sets as expected, the Lady Bulldogs found themselves in a rut in the third frame that saw the Lady Falcons take a commanding 25-13 win which sent the game to a fourth set.
From there, NU just popped off, taking a dominant 25-13 win of its own to close out the upset-seeking Adamson.
“Yung ngayong laro, marami kaming natutunan. Yung mga kailangan i-improve para sa next game so ayun, sa practice aayusin namin yung nga kulang namin na hindi na-apply kanina sa game.”
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