While the F2 Logistics Cargo Movers looked every inch the league-leader of the tourney after making history last Thursday, the Sta. Lucia Lady Realtors found themselves at the short end of the stick.
Following a tight opener, the Cargo Movers orchestrated a 25-3 drubbing of the Lady Realtors in the second set, which proved to be the biggest lead any team has ever established in a set in the history of the PSL.
Being at the opposite end of a historical whipping, Sta. Lucia head coach Babes Castillo asserted that the Lady Realtors simply lost mettle as the pressure and odds started to pile up against them.
“Doon mo makikita kung gaano ka-powerful yung mind e.
“Pag inaway mo na yung sarili mo, yun ang nangyari. Yun ang tingin ko kanina, inaway na nila yung sarili nila,” he said.
The record-shattering frame eclipsed the one the Cargo Movers recorded two years ago – a 25-5 first set drubbing of the Cherrylume-University of the East in the 2017 PSL All-Filipino Conference.
But Castillo said that suffering such a beatdown has always been part of the process for any other team.
“Di ‘ba ang nakita lang kasi ng tao ngayon yung mga ginto ng teams, hindi nila nakita yung process how we got there,” the former National University tactician bared. “Nakita ko na yung ganyang situation when I was in NU, tinatambakan kami ng UST but mababaliktad din yan.
“Perspective lang.”
Having dropped eight of their nine matches on top of the second-set trashing, the Sta. Lucia mentor stresses the need to work on one thing as a team. As he puts it, “I think we have to work our character as a team.
“They have to choose kung paano sila magre-respond against stress, against conflict.”
Castillo also believes that his players will learn from their mistakes and use the pain as motivation to redeem themselves.
“Tingin ko majority of the group natuto na. Kumbaga lumalalim na yung ugat, tinatamaan na,” he said. “Dati ina-accept lang nila, ngayon nasasaktan na sila e.
“Dati parang tanggap lang nila o ngayon may pain na.”
