Rondina: ‘We know we can beat the strong teams’

Photo by Tristan Tamayo/INQUIRER.net

It’s been just two wins, but University of Santo Tomas’ late season success is slowly changing the Golden Tigresses’ story in the UAAP Season 80 women’s volleyball tournament.

UST had an abysmal stretch in the middle of its schedule when it lost five straight games, an unprecedented streak in the school’s history, that almost stripped the Golden Tigresses of their contender status.

The Golden Tigresses have corrected their mistakes and their four-set win over National University, 22-25, 25-23, 25-21, 25-9,on Sunday saw their record go up to 4-7 while keeping them in the hunt fort a Final Four spot.

And with two consecutive wins, UST captain Cherry Rondina couldn’t help but wonder why they weren’t able to win games earlier in the season.

“I was thinking earlier that why weren’t we able to do this in the first round,” said Rondina in Filipino. “Although this win over NU will really help us individually as we head on to face stronger opponents.”

“I know that everything happens for a reason so we just have to deal with the earlier losses, it’s just sad that we’ve just experienced winning this late in the season.”

The Golden Tigresses are still in sixth place in the standings and are two games behind the 6-5 Lady Bulldogs but Rondina knows their win over NU didn’t just help them in the standings.

“We know that we can beat the strong teams and we won’t ever underestimate ourselves because we can win against those teams that are better than us,” said Rondina, who had 25 points.

“This win really helped with our confidence, I hope this continues.”