IS THE subpar performance of the UST Lady Spikers this season a temporary setback or a lasting downfall?
The UAAP Season 75 women’s volleyball tournament marked the third straight championship for De La Salle University (DLSU). But it would also be remembered as the year when UST failed to barge into the Final Four for the first time in 10 years.
Even coach Odjie Mamon gave the team a score of five in a scale of 1 to 10 for their dismal performance. The España-based volleybelles finished fifth with a dismal 8-6 win-loss tally.
“The team was well-prepared but their full potential was not met,” Mamon said. “Those whom we expected to perform did not do well.”
UST’s unlikely finish this year caught the Thomasian community by surprise. Sports analysts were puzzled as well.
People’s Journal sportswriter Theodore Jurado attributed the problem to the absence of a peculiar trait present in every successful UST volleyball team.
“UST lacks intensity to win this season, especially on must-win games,” said Jurado, who witnessed the Lady Spikers’ growth since 2000 and their title runs in 2006-2007 and 2009-2010 under former coach August Santamaria and Shaq de los Santos, respectively.
Jurado said he had UST at third place for his pre-season predictions behind the eventual top two squads: La Salle and Ateneo de Manila University.
However, Jurado believes there’s still hope for UST to regain its dominance in the sport but there are a lot more work to be done.
“It is not yet the end of the world for the UST women’s volleyball program. I guess what the school needs right now is to be aggressive in their recruitment. And with the new two-year residency taking effect in Season 76, this might help UST a lot,” he said. Jose Antonio R. Nisay
