Only one game away for National University to sweep the UAAP Season 84 women’s volleyball elimination round and earn an automatic Finals berth.
But University of Santo Tomas is keen to play spoiler on Thursday at 4 pm.
“Regarding sa NU game which is kami yung last game nila, sino naman ‘yung ayaw tumalo kay NU?” said Golden Tigresses assistant coach Yani Fernandez after their 26-24, 25-18, 25-19 win over University of the East, Tuesday.
UST is looking to repeat what happened over in the basketball side of things when the then-13-0 Ateneo de Manila University dropped its final game in the eliminations against University of the Philippines.
And Fernandez, stepping up in place of head coach Kung Fu Reyes who was not around due to personal reasons, vows that the Golden Tigresses will go all out against the Lady Bulldogs, who defeated them in the first round 25-21, 25-21, 21-25, 25-15.
After all, a win against NU will force a traditional Final Four instead of a stepladder, a schedule that will be in favor for the rest of the teams because it will mean fewer games.
“Alam naman natin ‘yung magiging format pag nasweep nila, stepladder, so for us mahirap din yon,” said Fernandez. “Talagang ang dami naming games pa na lalaruin so sana makuha namin ‘yung win on Thursday.
“Maging okay sana ‘yung result kasi syempre yung ibang teams din tumitingin din sa amin na sana matalo ‘yung NU kasi syempre malaki ‘yung impact sa ibang teams.”
However, Fernandez and player of the game KC Galdones know it would be a tough task to hand NU its first loss of the tournament.
“Talagang dadaan kami sa butas ng karayom sa game namin sa NU pero basta sa amin lalaruin lang namin kung anong dapat ilaro,” said the assistant coach.
“Marami pang dapat ayusin like ‘yung grabe po kami mag-error,” said Galdones, referring to their 27 errors against the Lady Warriors.
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