UST moves on after heartbreaking loss
THE UST Golden Tigresses simply could not score and defend the way they used to.
Coach Kungfu Reyes said that this is the reason why UST lost for the first time in the UAAP Season 86 women’s volleyball tournament, falling to the NU Lady Bulldogs, 25-23, 17-25, 21-25, 20-25, at the Smart Araneta Coliseum on Sunday, March 24.
“Our scorers could not kill the balls we used to kill. No reasons or alibi for our loss today,” said Reyes, whose Golden Tigresses dropped to 8-1 but still leads the standings entering the Holy Week break.
“The same thing happened to us defensively, our blocking was not there as well as our service game. Those qualities of a losing team, that is who we are today.”
Scorers Angge Poyos, Regina Jurado, and Jonna Perdido scored 18, 11 and nine points, respectively, but for some reason they weren’t as impactful as they were in UST’s first eight games.
The Golden Tigresses, as a whole, simply didn’t look as sturdy as they were in their first eight games, perhaps a result of the Lady Bulldogs just playing a lot better this time, avenging their first round defeat.
NU defeated UST in service aces (13-2), attack points, (5851), blocking, (10-4) and digging (38-30), albeit the former won the reception department, 37-36.
Focusing on the silver lining, Reyes said that it’s good to finally meet this predicament early in the second round, giving the Golden Tigresses ample time to address it, especially with the league going on a break in observance of the Holy Week.
“The good thing is as early as our second game in the second round, we’re already seeing this and we’ve finally met our so-called breaking point.”
Reyes added that bouncing back for UST does not depend on the players’ skills, though. For him, it’s more of how his team will show it’s resiliency, it’s mental toughness after a defeat.
“I reminded them in the dugout before that our motto is ‘we lose a point, we lose a set, but we do not lose our character’ and this time we lost a game so our character should remain intact,” he said.
“They already know the technical and tactical side of volleyball, but now we’re going to focus more on our body language, our emotional side, it’s something that we have to tackle for our upcoming games.”