After the De La Salle University Lady Spiker’s demoralizing loss to the Adamson Lady Falcons seven days ago, head tactician Ramil De Jesus did not mince his words and called his team’s performance as “pambaranggay”.
Seven days ago, he thought his team misrepresented the La Salle jersey.
Seven days ago, he was deeply disappointed in his team.
But on Saturday night, during the highly anticipated match between La Salle and the Ateneo Lady Eagles, the defending champions’ killer instincts proved to De Jesus that they are more than just a “baranggay” team.
“Sa ngayon ‘yung determination na manalo, pang UAAP na.
“Yung laro kasi, parang roller-coaster, andoon na tapos biglang bibitaw, pag malayo hahabol. May kulang pa, yung pang-end game ang kulang,” De Jesus shared.
The Lady Spikers established their dominance over the Lady Eagles early in the match where they immediately bagged a two-set advantage. In the third set, they were down by as much as 10 points but through loaded services and composure they were able to equalize at 22-all.
“Nakita ko ‘yung determination nilang makahabol. ‘Yun nga lang medyo kinapos pa rin sa dulo kahit andoon nung last na,” said De Jesus, who saw his team give up the third set and miss its chance to wrap it up in three sets.
Eventually they closed the match in the fourth set with attacker Desiree Cheng drilling her spikes and Kianna Dy nailing block after block. In front of 18,537 screaming fans inside the SM Mall of Asia Arena, they displayed character and maturity.
“Well ito yung gusto kong makita sa kanila. Kasi palagi kong sinasabi sa kanila ‘yun na hindi ko nararamdaman ‘yung character ng bawat isa inside the court,” the 10-time champion coach expressed after their four-set triumph over the Lady Eagles.
“Siguro, nararamdaman ko individually, hindi as a group. Ngayon, as a team talaga.”
Safe to say, with De Jesus’ thrifty way with words, he is pleased with La Salle’s performance tonight but with a brand new second round to face next week, his compliments will not come easy again.
