DE La Salle looks to make it two wins in a row against National University today, March 25, in the UAAP Season 85 women's volleyball tournament at the PhilSports Arena in Pasig City.
With confidence touching the roof after routing the Lady Bulldogs 25-10, 25-15, 25-21 last Wednesday, the Lady Spikers face their last season's UAAP Finals tormentor anew at 5 p.m.
Led by super rookie Angel Canino, La Salle's win over NU last Wednesday snapped its four-game losing streak against the Lady Bulldogs. The Lady Spikers also ended the first round without a loss in seven games.
The league-leading Lady Spikers begin the second round against the Lady Bulldogs, who may be on payback mode on Saturday.
"Us coaches, we always remind the players that this game is already over, the next game is going to be different. We couldn't stay on cloud nine. I always remind them that if we win in a big game, we should have our feet down on the ground right away. We shouldn't be thinking of that win in the ensuing days because we're preparing for our next game," said La Salle interim coach Noel Orcullo after beating NU last Wednesday.
As for the Lady Bulldogs, reigning UAAP Most Valuable Player (MVP) Bella Belen shared that they are having "hunger issues" as their desire to win wasn't really there in the first round, unlike last year.
Belen said that NU should reflect and remember its ultimate goal of going for a second straight title to bring back that hunger.
"For us players, the hunger when it comes to playing (and winning) sort of evaporated. Like this game [against La Salle], it's obvious that La Salle wanted to win this game point by point more than we did," said Belen.
"We need to reflect on ourselves, on what is really our ultimate goal this season so that we can bring back that hunger," added Belen, who notched 12 points, nine receptions and seven digs last Wednesday.
NU head coach Karl Dimaculangan said they should put more premium on their mental preparation, adding that the Lady Bulldogs are going to use their loss to the Lady Spikers as motivation to rally in the second round.
"We just have to go back and prepare. First, we should focus on our mental preparation. We're going to have a short preparation. It will probably boil down to execution on Saturday," he said.
"We'll use this loss as motivation and we're going to have our adjustments. Let's see what we can do this second round."
Meanwhile, Ateneo and University of the East collide at 9 a.m. followed by the battle between University of Santo Tomas and Adamson at 11 a.m. and the tussle between Far Eastern University and University of the Philippines at 3 p.m.