De La Salle-College of Saint Benilde was greeted by a tough challenge in the first game of its title retention campaign in the NCAA Season 98 women’s volleyball tournament.
They needed to buck a slow start after San Sebastian College-Recoletos displayed much improvement from how it performed last season behind sophomore Kath Santos and other stars Kj Dionisio, Amaka Tan, and Tina Marasigan.
And Benilde assistant coach Jay Chua admitted that jitters and nerves got to the players’ heads early in the game.
“‘Yung first set kasi sobrang stiff talaga nila, parang slow start talaga tsaka kinakabahan din kasi, jitters, mga gano'n,” Chua said following their 20-25, 25-22, 25-13, 25-11 win against the Lady Stags.
“So nire-remind lang namin sila na relax lang and every point naman 'yung ginagawa namin.”
("The first set, the players were so stiff. It was a slow start and they were nervous, they had the jitters... so I reminded them to just relax and take it every point.")
Benilde was able to eke out the victory despite missing a key piece to the puzzle in Season 97 MVP Mycah Go. Still, Chua said they are satisfied with how it turned out for them.
“Okay naman 'yung team kahit wala si Mycah so every training naman, lagi lang kaming naka-focus,” he said.
“Sa second set, pinasok lang namin 'yung mga rookies so nag-respond naman kaya hanggang third and fourth set, relaxed na silang maglaro.”
("The team is okay even without Mycah, every training we just remain focused... In the second set, we brought in our rookies and they responded so until the third and fourth set, they just played relaxed.")
—JMB, GMA Integrated News
