Adamson University pulled off a huge shocker over the mighty De La Salle University in Game 1 of the Shakey’s Super League National Invitationals finals.
But the job is not yet done for the Lady Falcons.
Head coach JP Yude knows that his young but feisty wards need to finish what they’ve started and guard against complacency against the wounded Lady Spikers.
“We’re able to get Game 1 but we can’t be too complacent heading into Game 2,” the first year Adamson mentor said.
The Lady Falcons were the hungrier team after crawling back from a nine-point deficit in the fourth set before outplaying their rivals in the extended decider of the best-of-three series opener last Wednesday at the FilOil EcoOil Centre in San Juan.
Adamson stunned La Salle with an amazing fightback to eke out a 22-25, 25-17, 17-25, 27-25, 16-14, escape and move a win closer to claiming the crown.
The Lady Falcons, who remain unbeaten in five outings, can close out the series on Saturday.
But Adamson will need to play better and not leave its fate to chance against the reigning University Athletic Association of the Philippines champions.
“We must continue what we started. We have to prepare well for Game 2. We have to address our lapses in the previous game, especially in our service receive,” Yude said as he rued his team allowing the Lady Spikers to land 12 aces.
“We have to work on those things because we know how strong La Salle is. For sure, they will try to extend the series. We have to be ready.”
Veteran Lucille Almonte, one of the few holdovers left following the sudden exodus of players and departure of former coach Jerry Yee after UAAP Season 85, is also reminding her teammates not to get too emotional about their win.
“Now that we tasted victory (over La Salle) our mindset is to work harder. We all know that we still have a lot of lapses, we committed a lot of errors so we have to work on that,” Almonte, who dropped 24 points including four in the fifth set, said.
“We have to double our hard work. We’ll fight until the end.”
Rookie Red Bascon, whose heroics in the fourth and fifth sets coming off the bench paved the way for the comeback win, shares the same mindset.
“Our coaches always tell us to keep on fighting until the game is over, have patience, have trust in ourselves and our teammates,” Bascon said.
A defiant Adamson side silenced the La Salle crowd after mounting a comeback from an 11-20 deficit in the fourth set with Bascon and Shary Ancheta combining for 11 points in the frame.
Bascon then capped her night with back-to-back hits in the deciding set to complete the Lady Falcons’ great escape.
“As I said before, we’re always the underdogs against La Salle. But this time we have to make them work, exhaust them. We have to show grit if we want to defeat them,” Yude said.
Game 3, if needed, is set on Sunday.
