UAAP Volleyball Preview: Lady Bulldogs aim Finals breakthrough

National University’s Jaja Santiago. Tristan Tamayo/INQUIRER.net

Head coach: Roger Gorayeb

Last season: 7-7 (5th)

Key losses: Myla Pablo, Rica Diolan, Ivy Perez,

Key additions: Risa Sato, Larnie Aberin

If head coach Roger Gorayeb is to be believed, National University could be on its way to a big year in the 79th Season of the UAAP.

The Lady Bulldogs failed to enter the Final Four last season despite flaunting the attacking trio of Jaja Santiago, Myla Pablo, and Jorelle Singh as they finished the eliminations with a 7-7 record and settled for the fifth seed.

Gorayeb, however, doesn’t see the Lady Bulldogs’ mediocre run the past year as a reason not to aim high for Season 79.

“I wanted to reach the top four last year, now I want to go to the Finals because they started recruiting in 2008 but they never had the chance to get to the Finals,” said Gorayeb in Filipino.

NU’s early 3-1 record in the elimination round proved false pretense as the Lady Bulldogs lost four of their next five games and even back-to-back wins over University of Santo Tomas and University of the Philippines weren’t enough to push them to the semifinals.

And even though NU had the tallest player in the league in the 6-foot-5 Santiago, the Lady Bulldogs were the second worst blocking team as they averaged just 1.4 blocks per set.

Reasons beyond numbers also plagued the team with chemistry problems preventing the Lady Bulldogs to contend against title favorites Ateneo and La Salle.

“I hope they can carry the pressure up until the Finals especially with the social media presence that is why I try to limit their use of social media,” said Gorayeb.

Now that NU starts off on practically a clean slate, Gorayeb’s hopes his decision to put in Santiago as the team’s captain will eventually payoff.

Gorayeb said Santiago is now the “older sister” of the team and it’s always a good thing to have the best player also as the designated leader.

“Jaja has always been their older sister, and she can talk to the younger players and the kids also listen to her,” said Gorayeb.