UAAP: Ateneo not satisfied with bounce-back win

Ateneo Blue Eagles. UAAP PHOTOS

MANILA, Philippines – Ateneo is not satisfied after entering the victory column in the UAAP Season 85 women’s volleyball tournament.

Instead of going to the postgame press conference, Almadro went straight to the dugout and laid siege for 40 minutes despite a 25-17, 25-23, 24-26, 25-10 win over Eastern University on Wednesday at the Mall of Asia Arena.

Almadro has high expectations going into the game, looking to redeem himself after losing straight away to National University last Saturday.

“Well, I’m just repeating the details. I detailed why this happened. Maybe I had too many expectations for this game because we wanted to bounce back convincingly,” said Almadro in Filipino.

“In the first two sets and especially the third set. I didn’t see the things that I wanted, especially in terms of applying our skills, and our fundamentals. I explained the things that we need to add to the next game if we want to win,” he said.

Faith Nisperos, who scored 14 points to lead the Blue Eagles’ balanced attack, admitted “the performance was not what we expected.”

“It’s more than internal that we need to strengthen the organization inside. We can’t show the performance we want, which we can do in practice,” said Nisperos in Filipino. “It’s just about how we will show in the game. I have no doubts about my team. It’s just our time and effort.

After failing to sweep the game after the Lady Red Warriors stole the set, Ateneo gathered its act to dominate in the fourth quarter and improve its record to 1-1. The captain of the team considered his coach, who lit a fire under him

“In the fourth set, I will give credit to Coach O. He told us to have a goal. We just went after it and insisted that we want to win. I also told my teammates: Girls, we can do it. We just want and we can do it,” Nisperos said. “We showed it in the fourth.”

Ateneo will face their fiercest rival La Salle, who won their first two games, on Sunday at the MOA Arena.

Nisperos saw the exciting victory as an opportunity to push himself.

“This will not make us relax. This will make us work hard and push us to learn more. We will study our movements and everything. That’s how I see today’s game. This is an opportunity and it should be an eye opener for the whole team,” said Nisperos.

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