John Wooden, the legendary UCLA coach that built a 10-year NCAA basketball dynasty once said, “Winning takes talent; to repeat takes character”. This has become a beacon of inspiration for those teams who seek to dominate an era.
The green and white spikers from Taft are marching into the fray seeking to start another dominant era. The flames of expectations of this back-to-back were fanned by the pre-season four-set victory against one of the premiere teams in Thailand, Supreme VC, a team decorated by a myriad of Thai national team members, was once a three-time Thai league champion and the current champions of the Asian Volleyball Club.
But even with that inspiring Season 85 title run, the defending champions were confronted by a harsh reality: the exodus of key pieces including libero Justin Jazareno, Jolina dela Cruz, Leila Cruz, Mars Alba, and Fifi Sharma, a giant chunk of the Coach Ramil De Jesus’ starting line-up.
With a roster depleted, there was only one option for the DLSU Lady Spikers, next spiker up.
But like all Ramil De Jesus teams, every DLSU Lady Spikers team met adversity with equanimity. And like every season, this legendary coach remained even keeled.
Armed with a blend of skills and height, and a dangerous underdog mindset, the first two matches of the green spikers highlighted their unyielding resolve
THE ONE WHEN THE DLSU LADY SPIKERS WALLOPED THE ADU LADY FALCONS FOR CDRJ’S #300 VICTORIES
Their much-awaited debut against the Adamson Lady Falcons turned from an anticipated thriller to a one-sided beatdown. From Thea Gagate’s swift swing down the middle from a perfect Julia Coronel set for La Salle’s first point of the season, the Lady Spikers never looked back.
With the enviable luxury of having multiple options, Coronel stepped up to become a wizard in distributing the leather to open attackers that shredded the Adamson floor defense. From aerial supremacy at the net down to an air-tight floor defense, the Lady Falcons just could not find a solution to the big DLSU problem.
La Salle quickly raced to a 20-10 lead in the first set behind the net rotation of Shevana Laput, Angel Canino, Thea Gagate and Alleiah Malaluan. But it was Laput’s vertical dominance that pushed them to set point while Canino finished the set at 25-16.
The second set was a first set replica, the greens build a sizeable 14-7 mid-set lead behind Amie Provido, then survive the mini-rallies along the set. The San Marcelino volleybelles were able to trim the lead down to 16-12, one last Lady Spikers streak would put the set into bed at 22-15.
A set-to-spike fake from Coronel and another Laput block notched Taft’s second set at 25-16.
From this point onwards, it was apparent from both ends that La Salle is a team that towers over Adamson. And even when the third set was tight at the 9-9 point, the Lady Spikers knew that they can kick their play to a higher gear and dominate.
Canino did what every alpha would do, finish them off by leading an 8-1 charge to turbo-charge her Lady Spikers to 17-10.
It was only a matter of time as Adamson choked on a serve and finished the game 25-18.
Canino topped all La Salle volleybelles with 14 points while Laput contributed 11 and Gagate , Malaluan and Provido balanced the attack with 8, 7 and 8 points respectively.
LA SALLE SCORES SECOND WIN OVER FEU: THE ONE WITH THE THIRD SET HUSTLE
With that symphony of power and effort that resulted into that resounding win over Adamson, La Salle aimed to sustain their momentum facing a souped up FEU Lady Tams.
Despite the presence of FEU’s foreign prodigy Faida Bakanke, the Lady Spikers never lost their swag. The Lady Spikers pulled away early in the initial set and, once again, never looked back. An open attack by the MVP of Season 85, Angel Canino and a net play by Malaluan finished off the Lady Tams in the first set 25-20.
La Salle again dominated the second set with stellar net defense with three blocks for the set and outscored FEU on attack points 10-8.
But as the Lady Spikers were expecting to waltz into the third set and win, the FEU Lady Tamaraws came charging back and levelled the score at 10-10. With the set hanging in an unfamiliar tight balance at 20-18, Coronel dumped the ball in the middle to give La Salle some breathing room at 21-18.
Unlike the first two sets, FEU challenged and charged back 22-21 before a Coach Ramil time-out.
Laput responded by blasting through the FEU defense with a thunderous cross-court assault to push La Salle to 23-21. After an exchange of service errors, Canino dunked the leather off a bad FEU service reception to finish off the stubborn Tams 25-22.
THAT UNDERDOG MINDSET
“Marami pa kaming dapat i-improve” said the reigning MVP Angel Canino was asked during the aftermath of a game scoring on 11 attack points and three blocks. Being one of the thought leaders of the team despite being just a sophomore speak volumes about a team that is typical CRDJ.
And that has carried the Lady Spikers through the first two games, relentless hustle on the floor, unwavering defense on the net and smart reads on the defensive end have anchored their balanced attack that has been predicated by the green spikers’ dominant frontline.
But what is scary about the Lady Spikers is that underdog mentality that they have carried through the first two matches.
If back-to-back champions require character, these edition of the DLSU Lady Spikers seem to have lots of it.
ANIMO LA SALLE!
(all photos courtesy of The UAAP Varsity Channel)
