Jerrili Malabanan breaks out of slump, repays Pascua’s trust

By: Ohmer Bautista

Far Eastern University team captain Jerrili Malabanan was mired in a scoring slump for the first six games of the Lady Tamaraws in the UAAP season 81 Women’s Volleyball tournament.

That dismal trend finally came to a halt in their final game of the first round, though, as she finished with nine points built on eight spikes and an ace.

“All of the games before this game, I have always had a feeling that I’m not satisfied of my game,” confided Malabanan, as she normed subpar numbers in the past six games – including a scoreless outing against University of the East.

“My coaches just kept telling me not to lose hope and just to keep pushing myself in training, and then he said that I would find like my groove.”

Malabanan also expressed her gratitude to her coach, George Pascua, for always trusting her even in her darkest of days, and constantly reminding her about what she could bring to the table as a player.

“Coach always tells me like I already have the skills, it’s just my mental thing is stopping me.

“So he said just keep telling yourself that you can do this. So that’s what I did,” the 21-year-old national team pool member shared.

Despite Malabanan not reaching double-digit territory, coach Pascua sees this breakthrough as one of the positive takeaways from their recent three-set defeat at the hands of their finals tormentors, the DLSU Lady Spikers.

Still, Pascua stressed that Malabanan alone will not be enough to grant them a win.

“Nagi-step up naman siya. ‘Yun nga lang, ‘yung mga dapat naming inaasahan, medyo hindi ganun,” Pascua said about the 5-foot-10 spiker. “‘Yung expectation namin sa iba ay mag step up kasi ang hinihintay lang namin talaga before ay si Jerrili lang.

“That time na si Jerrili naman ang nag step up, ‘yung iba naman ‘yung hindi naka-meet sa expectations.”

As FEU’s first-round campaign came to an end, Malabanan, the skipper of the team, asserted that their recent downfall will become the team’s motivation as they look to bounce back come the second half of eliminations. As she put it, “I don’t think we’re gonna think too much about this loss.

“Like coach said, he said for us to forget about the first round and all of our losses and use that as motivation for next round.”