Molina wants Cignal to keep confidence in check to guard against complacency
Owning a solid preliminary record in the PVL Reinforced Conference and already assured of the No. 2 spot heading into the playoffs should give Cignal all the confidence it needs, right?
Ces Molina thinks otherwise. And she has a good reason for that.
“Not too confident because whenever we become confident we become prone to complacency,” Molina told the Inquirer in Filipino on Tuesday.
The HD Spikers finished the eliminations on a high note after shutting down Nxled, 27-25, 25-20, 25-20, to secure the second seed in the knockout quarterfinals with seven victories in eight games.
Only one team has figured out Cignal this season, unbeaten Akari, but that defeat provided something positive for the HD Spikers.
“Even if we have a loss, it was a good thing for us because it served as a wake up call,” coach Shaq delos Santos said in the postgame interview.
“The biggest takeaway here is to never be complacent because with all of the teams, you’ll never know who will win because everyone is getting stronger,” Molina said. “I agree with coach that we should be consistent from the beginning because the level of play is very different right now.”
The HD Spikers’ quarterfinal dance partner could be a team they have already mastered or one of the squads they haven’t had the pleasure of meeting yet because of the pool-play format.
And that is a big reason why any surplus confidence will be an enemy for Cignal heading into the playoffs, where one mistake could spell disaster.
“It’s like a flaw for us before when we thought that we could win all of our games. It seems like the opposite happens,” Molina said.
That’s why Cignal uses a much better way of approaching the games moving forward.
“We’re thinking more like ‘we’re more prepared’ than ‘we’re confident.’ That is our goal,” Molina added.
“The 7-1 [slate] that we have right now is just a record—a knockout game is a knockout game and that record will have no bearing if we lose,” Molina said. “Whoever will be our opponent, we will trust more on the process of our preparation.”
