La Salle’s ‘roller coaster’ ride ends with UAAP title

La Salle Lady Spikers. Photo by Tristan Tamayo/INQUIRER.net

La Salle coach Ramil de Jesus shared this group of Lady Spikers are unique in their own ways.

“Of all the teams that I formed, this one has been a roller coaster,” de Jesus said after guiding the school to its sixth UAAP crown in the last 10 years.

Against all odds, the Lady Spikers snared the title on Saturday in a tough five-set classic over Ateneo, 19-25, 25-14, 18-25, 25-18, 15-10, to sweep the best-of-three Finals duel.

Contrary to his past La Salle squads composed of surefire standouts, de Jesus has definitely been tested with this crew as it had to go through adversities throughout the season.

“Our performance has been up and down. Our bench is shallow that you can’t pull players on the fly,” he said.

Despite those weak points, de Jesus said it made the players trust the system more as La Salle sought to successfully defend its title while also giving graduating setter Kim Fajardo a proper sendoff.

“Through the course of the eliminations, we’re reviewing our games and we can see the difference, our advantages and disadvantages, so that’s where we put our focus. We concentrated in our trainings as hard as those were and they all accepted it,” he said.

“The players trusted the system and put on the hard work, and they were all well-disciplined. That was the key.”