HEADING into the UAAP Season 88 Finals, La Salle had a little over two weeks of rest and recovery, as it awaited the survivor of the stepladder playoffs.
While a 17-day grace period would obviously lead to a much more replenished and ready Lady Spikers side, head coach Ramil de Jesus actually saw things differently.
“Para sa akin, mayroong disadvantage at advantage yung pahinga namin. Sinasabi ko nga sa team na mahirap, kasi [sa] stepladder, nama-master ng mga teams yung pressure sa loob ng court samantalang tayo, nandito nagpapahinga lang,” he told reporters after they finally took the taraflex once more last Wednesday.
“So yun yung advantage ng ibang team, na at least yung pressure, naha-handle na nila. Kami, sa tune-up lang, pero wala dun yung pressure.“
RDJ knows this situation all too well, as in Season 76, La Salle also got an outright finals berth only to squander its thrice-to-beat advantage.
READ: For all his wins, this loss stays with RDJ. Find out what
The long layoff didn't do them any favors then, as Alyssa Valdez and Ateneo rounded into form in the stepladder playoffs and rampaged right throuh them in the title series.
Loss-less La Salle
Though the Lady Spikers are by no means new faces in the finals, this grand stage is an entirely different beast that needs preparing for, especially with two-time defending champion and modern-day rival National U at the opposite side of the net.
Fortunately for de Jesus, his Taft towers just had to go back to how they handled all the pressure from their elimination round sweep.
Though the record would say otherwise, La Salle's spotless slate didn’t come with dominant wins each and every time, as it had two five-set scares in the form of the Lady Bulldogs in the second round, as well as Adamson in the first round.
In their penultimate match in Round 1, the Lady Falcons forced a fifth set after winning the fourth in a 25-13 blowout before Shevana Laput and the green-and-white blew them out to the tune of 15-5 in the deciding frame.
Then with their automatic advance to the finals hanging in the balance in the last game of the elims, the Lady Spikers edged out NU once more in a headline-grabbing finish.
Those character-building wins are what they leaned on when they had to shake off a bit of rust in Set 1 of Game 1.
“Sabi ko sa kanila, kailangan masabayan natin ito. Ang nakita ko, medyo mabagal yung start namin and then eventually, noong nasa latter part na ng (first) set, nakaka-adjust na yung team, and then nakakasabay na sila dun sa labanan,” he said.
With that, RDJ and La Salle stand a win away from a perfect run, not only well-rested, but also well-adjusted.
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