Vicente on UE defeat to NU: ‘We lost gallantly’

Tristan Tamayo/INQUIRER.net

University of the East may have lost its opening game in the UAAP Season 79 women’s volleyball tournament, but head coach Francis Vicente knows his team has come a long way from where it was a year ago.

The Lady Warriors failed to score an upset against powerhouse National University, but they showed promise right away—surprising the Lady Bulldogs in the opening set before going down in the next three fighting.

“Although we lost the game, we lost the game gallantly,” said Vicente on Saturday at Smart Araneta Coliseum.

“I always tell them that there will always be a winner and a loser, it just so happens that we were the losers. It’s how you play the game.”

UE finished Season 78 with a 1-13 record, their lone win coming in their final game of the eliminations at the expense of Adamson University and it almost as if the Lady Warriors were poised to chalk up their first victory of Season 79. 

After a strong first set, where they forced the Lady Bulldogs to a whopping 19 errors, the Lady Warriors lost steam, 

“The winning mentality’s starting to come up, it’s only 70 percent,” said Vicente. “But you can already feel that 70 percent.”