Tigresses have some takeaways from bitter Bulldogs defeat
After being shell-shocked in its opening game, University of Santo Tomas (UST) showed how it got things right to correct its course in the UAAP Season 87 women’s volleyball tournament.
The Growling Tigresses’ first loss came on opening day, a four-setter to Far Eastern before they steamrolled their way past five teams until a familiar rival reminded them once again of what they were still lacking.
For the fourth straight time dating back to last season, National University (NU) withstood the gritty Tigresses, who pushed the defending champions to the proverbial limit in a 23-25, 25-17, 19-25, 25-18, 15-9 rematch of last year’s title bout last Sunday.
Santo Tomas looked like it was the one that would do the humbling and finally deal the Lady Bulldogs a first loss this season, especially after pulling ahead with a 2-1 set advantage.
If at all, the Tigresses have learned from that setback once again, and are ready to take on anyone when the second round starts this weekend.
“We really have a lot more to work on,” skipper Detdet Pepito said after the bitter defeat. “We’ll continue persevering. It was also unexpected that we’ll have this [second running] record even if we didn’t have the best performances.”
“We became better in our past few games,” Pepito added. “The first round became a good barometer as to how much more we can do.”
Santo Tomas will continue to miss the services of talented hitters Jonna Perdido and Xyza Gula. And missing them wasn’t more evident in the loss to the undefeated Lady Bulldogs as the Nation U defense got the chance to concentrate on Regina Jurado and Angge Poyos.
Seeing it differently
But assistant coach Yani Fernandez sees it differently.
“We weren’t able to maximize our spikers because we lost our passing,” Fernandez said in Filipino. “Credit to NU because they had a good tactical service game. It’s a lesson learned again for us.”
“We know our strengths, we just need to study how we’ll be able to bring them to the game on a consistent basis,” Fernandez added as he pointed to the inconsistency that’s hounding the team.
That inconsistency showed in the first round as the Tigresses won only one game in straight sets.
But despite manpower woes and the inconsistency that Fernandez talked about, the Tigresses seem to have the tools to make it to the finals once again,
First things first, though, they have to rebound from that National U loss. And rebound bigger than the way they did against the Lady Tamaraws to have a chance.
