Lyceum of the Philippines University flaunted its experience as the Lady Pirates began their stepladder Final Four campaign in the NCAA Season 99 women's volleyball tournament on Sunday.
Banking on their finals appearance last season, LPU eked out a masterful four-set romp against Arellano University with a 25-17, 24-26, 25-20, 25-19 victory behind the heroics of Jaja Tulang.
Head coach Cromwel Garcia is hopeful that their current Final Four campaign will have a better and different result this time around in bid to eclipse their bridesmaid finish in Season 98.
"Actually ‘yung experience nu’ng last season sobrang laking bagay para sa amin kasi kumbaga nakita namin na hindi imposible na magapang namin ‘yung papuntang itaas eh," Garcia told GMA News Online.
"Gusto rin talaga naming akyatin ‘yung itaas kasi may unfinished business pa kami doon."
(Actually, our experience last season was a big help because we somehow saw that it was not impossible to crawl up. We want to go up because we have an unfinished business there.)
Standing in their way, however, is second seed Colegio de San Juan de Letran, which they will face come Wednesday for the second round of the stepladder semis.
In their elimination round meeting, the Lady Knights outclassed the Lady Pirates with rookies Yen Martin and Gia Maquilang shining for the Oliver Alamdro-mentored crew.
But Garcia said this kind of game will only help in their character building as they also threaded the same path last year, where they also went through a stepladder after ranking third in the regular season.
"Nagawa na namin siya so there’s a big possibility na magawa ulit namin siya and hopefully maiba namin ‘yung resulta ngayon," Garcia added.
"‘Yung mga bata alam na ‘yung mental side na no doubt, kaya talaga namin umakyat."
(We already did it before so there's a big possibility we do it again and hopefully, we will have a different result. The players know the mental side of it. There's no doubt that we can go up.)
—JKC, GMA Integrated News
