La Salle to focus on better playmaking after rare UAAP season-opening loss

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Legendary La Salle coach Ramil de Jesus admits the Lady Spikers need to ‘be better’ and ‘stable’ after losing a UAAP volleyball season opener for the first time in over a decade

MANILA, Philippines – As La Salle fell victim to an uncommon opening-day loss against defending champion NU in the UAAP Season 87 women’s volleyball tournament, head coach Ramil de Jesus admitted that inexperience got the better of them.

The Lady Bulldogs gored the Lady Spikers, 25-23, 25-21, 25-18, in front of 16,624 fans at the Mall of Asia Arena — La Salle’s first opening-day loss in over a decade, or since a five-set defeat against UST on March 9, 2013.

“I expected it since the setters were shaky, and have relative inexperience here in the UAAP, so I told them I understood, but be better in the next game,” De Jesus said in Filipino after the game.

“We hope [the players will be more] stable next game,” he added.

La Salle’s starting setter Julyana Tolentino only tossed in 5 excellent sets out of 42 attempts, compared to NU’s much experienced playmaker Lams Lamina, who had 20 out of 78.

A longtime champion coach with almost three decades of experience, De Jesus emphasized the importance of playmaking to a team’s success.

“The strength of the team is not with the spiker, but in the setter, because that’s the team’s driver,” said De Jesus.

Setters in past powerhouse La Salle teams — like Kim Fajardo, Mika Esperanza, Chie Saet, and Julia Coronel — have unlocked the wing and middle positions, producing 12 UAAP titles for the squad.

“So, if you have a young team, the team will be shaky,” said De Jesus. “We need to give the setter more time.”

The legendary La Salle mentor praised the NU core for staying composed even when his Lady Spikers threatened a comeback after leveling things up at 23  in the first set.

That excellent NU chemistry, De Jesus pointed out, is a product of familiarity as the Lady Bulldogs’ core players have been playing together since high school.

Now already in his 28th season of coaching, De Jesus said there will always be challenges, and for this batch, it had to be the preseason recruitment. 

“Every year, volleyball evolves, so the challenge now is how do we adapt, especially in recruitment since that’s the problem,” De Jesus noted.

“If you are active in recruitment, you can get all class A players, and it will be an advantage to your team,” he said, adding that most schools have beefed up their recruitment programs.

“So if you get class B players, it would be hard to develop them and match up with class A players. It would be a long process.” – Rappler.com