BUREAU of Customs coach Sherwin Meneses urged the squad to step up and provide support to Alyssa Valdez and Kanjana Kuthaisong of Thailand as they try to keep their finals hopes alive.
The Transformers bowed to BaliPure in three sets in the first match of a best-of-three semifinal showdown.
Meneses was pleased with performance of the two open hitters, but says others need to do much better if they are to extend their stint in the V-League Reinforced Conference.
The second match is set on Monday.
[See Kate Morrell shows way as Bali Pure beats Alyssa Valdez-led Customs in opener of V-League semis]
“Wala akong masabi doon sa dalawang opener ko talagang lumalaban, ginagawan nila ng paraan kailangan lang talaga mag-step up ng iba kasi team ‘yan eh,” said Meneses.
Valdez and Kuthaisong were the only players to score in double figures for Customs, with 15 and 10 points, respectively.
Rose Vargas came up with only four points, Lilet Mabbayad was able to score only thee, same as the output of the setter, Natthanicha Jaisaen of Thailand. Pau Soriano had two points.
“‘Yung pinractice namin for three days eh parang walang nangyari kaya nakakadisappoint ’yung game eh,” said Meneses, who took almost an hour of post-game huddle inside the locker room.
Meneses pointed out that players struggled with some basic volleyball skills.
“‘Yung service-receive namin hindi ko malaman kung ano nangyayari sa service-receive na ’yun,” he said.
“Kasi hindi naman ganoon mo kakilala kung sino ang nagse-service so dapat presence of mind na lang ’yun eh, ’di ba? So service-receive na naman ang nagkulang,” he added.