EVEN as challenges and adversity continue to hound the defending UAAP women’s volleyball champions, including a late injury bug to possibly missing out on a top two prelims finish, the De La Salle Lady Spikers are eager to flex their championship pedigree in what could be their trickiest path to the championship.
The Taft side lost two of its key spikers in a span of roughly three weeks as reigning MVP Angel Canino suffered a right arm injury shortly after the Holy Week break and opposite hitter Baby Jyne Soreño sat out La Salle’s rivalry-match win over Ateneo with a suspected dislocated left shoulder.
READ: Despite La Salle's win, coach still unhappy. Here's why
Such injuries couldn’t have come at a more crucial time for the Lady Spikers’ title defense as they are set to close out the elimination round in a high-stakes duel with fellow semifinalist and first-round tormentor University of Sto. Tomas.
Should National University win a possible Final Four prelude battle on Wednesday versus Far Eastern University, the winner of Saturday’s UST-La Salle match will then seize the last twice-to-beat advantage.
However, an FEU win over NU will make the UST-La Salle match a battle for the top seed instead, with the losing team set to take on NU in a one-game playoff for the second seed.
But for a coach as critical as Orcullo, champion mentor Ramil de Jesus’ longtime deputy, he gave the undermanned Lady Spikers their flowers for a dominant performance in their penultimate prelims match versus arch rival Ateneo.
“Ngayon nga (against Ateneo), sobrang ganda ng nilaro nila. Sobrang pulido, although may konting lapses towards the third set. Pero yung first two sets, nakita namin ‘yung hinahanap naming game sa kanila. Hopefully magtuloy-tuloy this coming Saturday para sa game against UST,” said Orcullo.
La Salle brand of volleyball
And from here on out, sticking to their championship-winning brand of volleyball, one that has worked time and time again even in the face of adversity, will be of dire importance now more than ever for the Lady Spikers.
“Lagi nga naming sinasabi namin sa kanila, ‘wag lang aalis sa sistema. Basta tuloy-tuloy lang kung ano ‘yung inaaral namin kada training at ‘yung pina-practice, dapat mai-apply sa game. Basta para maging solid ‘yung galaw, nandun lang dapat sila, sunod lang nang sunod sa sistema. Kung ano ‘yung binibigay na instructions, ‘yun ‘yung gawin para ‘di mawala,” Orcullo said.
“Kami naman, sabi nga namin the last time, kung may mawala, kailangan may mag-step up. Hopefully, kung anuman ‘yung mangyari this coming Saturday, kailangan lang gustuhin nila na manalo and ‘yung mga pa-praktisin namin sa training, ‘yung planning sa laro ng UST, sana magawa.”
Ace spiker Shevana Laput added: “I’m just glad that I can contribute to the team, but mostly I'm proud of my teammates because if you look at the stats here, you can see that everyone did something. I'm just glad that we're working together as a team," Laput said.
"Going into this last game as (hopefully) as well as the finals, I'm really glad to see how we're performing and we're very excited to show everybody that we're the Lady Spikers and this is how we play," she added.
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