“BABAWI KAMI”: ATENEO’S BEA DE LEON HEADING INTO GAME 2
By Ardyn Gonzales
5 May 2017
The Game 1 of the best-of-three Ateneo-La Salle finals did not go in favor of the Lady Eagles, as for the first time this season, they lost to their arch-rival in four sets, 21-25, 29-27, 25-22, 25-20, last Tuesday.
Being the number one spiking team in the league, it was pretty peculiar to see Ateneo struggling offensively, as they were out-attacked by La Salle, 51-38, with only 27.3% efficiency.
Third-year player Bea de Leon, one of the Lady Eagles’ main source of attacks, thinks that it was because of their shaky defense.
“The defense is a bit shaky, e. If you guys did notice, I actually didn’t get a lot of sets. The defense in totality for us was slow today.”
This problem in defense was apparent, particularly on their second set meltdown where Ateneo was up 22-17, but Kim Fajardo toyed with their reception with loaded serves.
However, the middle blocker is optimistic that they have what it takes to pull off their own version of ‘bounce back’.
“It’s not over, it’s just Game 1. We know we can do it with the past games with La Salle so definitely we’ll come back training tomorrow, work a lot harder, and on Saturday, babawi kami.”
“The mantra of this team is ‘Heartstrong’ and we’ll live up to that name”, she closed.
The Game 2 of the Finals will be on May 6, Saturday at the Smart-Araneta Coliseum.
Follow the writer on Twitter: [social link=”https://twitter.com/burnsports” icon=”62218″]
