After almost melting down against University of the East, Thea Gagate believes that La Salle needs to strengthen their mental toughness to avoid the same mistake in their upcoming games.
La Salle had an up-and-down performance against the Lady Warriors, struggling to close out the game in the fourth set.
That allowed UE to send the game to a deciding fifth frame.
“I think more on mental, yun talaga ang kailangan pang i-work. Kasi yun nga, as what I’ve mentioned, ‘di madali yung pagdadaanan namin this upcoming few games, so kailangan lang talagang tiyagain,” bared Gagate.
Luckily, the Lady Spikers managed to get their act together in the fifth set. They leaned on the towering duo of Gagate and Shevana Laput, who delivered the crucial hits to close out UE, 25-23, 21-25, 25-17, 22-25, 15-12, at the Smart Araneta Coliseum on Tuesday night.
Gagate delivered a game-high 22 points on 17 attacks, three blocks, and two aces to lead the Angel Canino-less La Salle.
The 23-year-old middle blocker said that the team must work on controlling their emotions moving forward.
“For me, nire-remind ko lang yung mga teammates ko na yun nga, kailangan talagang mas gustuhin namin sa lahat ng bagay, gustuhin namin dumipensa mapa sa floor or sa net, mas gustuhin naming pumal,” said Gagate.
“Always lang namin yun nire-remind sa kasama namin kasi yun nga, mas nangunguna yung emotions minsan. So kailangan pakalmahin para bumalik yung focus,” she added.
The Lady Spikers have four days to assess and work on their lapses before they take on Bella Belen and National University on Sunday, 4:00 PM at the SM Mall of Asia Arena.
“Yun nga, expect talaga namin dapat na the upcoming games hindi talaga siya madali. Kailangan lang namin tiyagain pa and mas sipagan pa, magsisimula talaga lahat ‘yan sa training.”
