Refusing to dwell on La Salle loss, Ateneo gets back on track

MANILA, Philippines—Ateneo doesn’t like dwelling in the past that much.

The Lady Eagles were able to bounce back from their horrible loss to defending champion De La Salle right before the Holy Week break as they blanked Adamson University, 25-16, 28-26, 25-17, in the UAAP Season 81 women’s volleyball tournament.

While it redemption game for the Lady Eagles,  the loss to the Lady Spikers is not something they want to focus on.

“That game was over, we don’t dwell on the past,” said Maddie Madayag Wednesday at Filoil Flying V Center. “We’re practicing a lot of things, it’s just that the players get confused and their presence of mind isn’t there during games.”

Ateneo is best blocking team in the league, averaging 2.62 kill blocks per set prior to its game against the Lady Spikers on April 13.

The Lady Spikers, however, were able to neutralize that advantage with Ateneo finishing with a zero on the kill blocks column after La Salle’s 25-17, 25-13, 25-23 win.

Ateneo, though, turned things around against the Lady Falcons finishing with 11 kill blocks with Kat Tolentino leading the way with 17 points, five of which were kill blocks.

“We always move forward, we’re practicing so many things and most of the time there are risks, so I think this is one of those risks,” said Ateneo head coach Oliver Almadro in Filipino. “We have to execute properly and we should be mentally tough.”

Ateneo retained the top spot in the Best Blockers with an average of 2.37 kill blocks per set.