Finish strong.
That is what University of the Philippines head coach Godfrey Okumu wants to see from his players as the Fighting Maroons head to the final stretch of the UAAP Season 84 women’s volleyball tournament elimination round.
“There’s only one way, it’s to go out and win and finish strong.
“With that mentality – finishing strong – I think we’ll be able to find our way,” said Okumu after UP’s straight-set win over Far Eastern University on Thursday morning.
“If we don’t think about finishing strong of course, we’ll be finished. So we have to think about finishing strong, going out there ,and push to win the remaining games. Every game is important; every point is important; and every pass is important,” the Kenyan mentor added.
Okumu pointed out the team’s recent match against De La Salle University. They led in all three sets but failed to close out properly, which resulted in a three-set loss. If the team learns to end games strongly, then they will be able to find their way to the Final Four.
Now, everything goes down to the little details as they look to trip National University, Adamson University, and Ateneo de Manila University to make it into the Final Four.
“Yes, the game against La Salle was a bitter pill to swallow. We led all the sets and our finishing is not up to date. We believe that if we’ll finish well the way we did today, and start strong and finish strong, then we’ll of course have a different result from what we had against La Salle,” said Okumu.
“I think we just have to pay attention in every little detail. Our strongest skill that we can use is pass, set, and spike and the block touch. If we bring that home, then everything will fall in place.”
—
All UAAP games stream live on GigaPlay presented by Yamaha. Download it now on Android or IOS.
