Coach’s ‘barangay level’ remark fires up La Salle to get back on track

When De La Salle head coach Ramil De Jesus lashed out at his players with the “barangay” label after their loss to Adamson University, the comment caused a ripple in the Lady Spikers’ locker room.

That ripple turned into an uproar that would only be quelled when the Lady Spikers got back on the winning track, which became reality when La Salle trumped Ateneo, 25-20, 25-17, 24-26, 25-20, in its first round capper in the UAAP Season 80 women’s volleyball tournament.

Kianna Dy said De Jesus’ comments riled them up even further and motivated them to avenge their shock loss to the Lady Falcons.

READ: De Jesus blasts Lady Spikers after 2nd loss: ‘You don’t belong in UAAP’

“Coach never gives us any praise for whatever we do, he will always look at our mistakes,” said Dy in Filipino Saturday at Mall of Asia Arena. “I think it was an eye-opener for us but we know that we deserved that comment.”

“We really played badly in that loss, so whatever he says to us we’ll just accept it.”

And Dy personall wanted to make up for her lackluster performance against Adamson where she scored just eight points.

Dy responded with a season-high 21 points, the first time she breached the 20-point mark this season, and that included 11 spikes, seven blocks, and three service aces.

READ: UAAP volleyball: La Salle outplays Ateneo for share of 2nd seed

“I played really bad against Adamson, it was a really bad game for me,” said Dy, whose team improved to 5-2 to get a share of the second seed with Far Eastern University.

“After our game against Adamson, I couldn’t sleep, I didn’t feel right, so I texted coach and told him ‘I am sorry, you had expectations put on me, so I will get back in the next game.’”

Dy added that De Jesus’ comment not only struck a chord with her, but with the whole Lady Spikers team who had to be reminded that they were the defending champions for two years running.

“Coach would always say to us ‘who are you? You’re the defending champions right?’ so we realized that ‘yeah, we are the defending champions,’” said Dy. “So coming into this game, we just remembered who we are.”