DANTE Alinsunurin would rather address areas to improve on than dwell on Choco Mucho’s 18-25, 20-25, 21-25 straight-sets loss to Petro Gazz on Thursday night.
Although there was a motivation to beat his rival in the collegiate ranks and his team’s former coach Oliver Almadro, Alinsunurin said it was not the main priority at all.
“Syempre meron naman [motivation] pero sabi ko sa kanila ‘wag ma-pressure dahil gusto namin is maglaro and mag-improve yung team,” he said after the Flying Titans lost for the first time in the 2023 Premier Volleyball League All-Filipino Conference.
"Kung ano man yung kalabasan nito is lagi tayong natututo sa mga ginagawa natin every game," he added.
The new Flying Titans’ head coach, a rival of Almadro in their days in UAAP men’s volleyball, said he is not in a hurry to inject his system in Almadro’s former ward.
“Pinaliwanag ko sa kanila na nagsisimula pa lang tayo,” he said. “Although matagal na silang team sa liga na ‘to, pero yun nga new coaching system yung ginagawa namin and sabi ko sa kanila hindi tayo nagmamadali. Dapat kung ano man yung problema natin, every game dapat masolusyunan natin.”
A wobbly first ball proved the problem of the Flying Titans all game long, limiting them to only 28 attack points on 154 attempts while allowing the Angels to hit six aces in 104 minute of action.
Starting setter Deanna Wong also struggled on 7-of-102 excellent sets, while scoring machine Kat Tolentino converted only 11-of-56 spikes for a less than 20% efficiency.
For Alinsunurin, these holes must be plugged as they strive for consistency in their succeeding matches, especially when they face defending champions Creamline on Tuesday at the SMART Araneta Coliseum.
“Yung problem namin sa laro kanina is yung service receive namin medyo off talaga yun, mababa yung porsyento namin. Kaya yung gusto namin mangyari sa loob ng court hindi namin magawa dahil sobrang baba ng porsyento sa serve namin at receive,” he said.
“Sa next game namin, pagtatrabahuan pa namin kasi doon talaga nagsisimula yung sistema ng laro namin yung serve receive namin.”
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