Mamon blames complacency after UST fails to advance in semis

University of Santo Tomas coach Odjie Mamon said his team’s complacency in the latter parts of the UAAP Season 79 men’s volleyball tournament haunted their chances of going further into the Final Four.

The fourth-seeded Growling Tigers lost in straight sets to the third-seeded Far Eastern University 25-22, 27-25, 25-18, in their stepladder match at Filoil Flying V Centre. They were set packing while the Tamaraws move on to a semifinals matchup against Season 78 silver holders National University.

UST’s mentor had also promised to finish with a better record than De La Salle since the two schools are the frontrunners for the UAAP General Championship. After achieving their goal, Mamon thinks his team slowed down.

“I promised that we will, number one, we will come ahead of La Salle and we will improve from our standing last year,” said Mamon whose team was at 7th place a season ago. “So, I think, when we got our goal they had this sense of accomplishment and we didn’t fight to the fullest in our last two games.”

Mamon said their initial goal was to improve from their 4-10 standing in Season 78, which they achieved since the Growling Tigers finished the eliminations with a 6-8 slate.

To the Growling Tigers’ credit, they did finish with a better card than the Green Archers’ 5-9 record.