Legendary coach Roger Gorayeb was left unsatisfied despite seeing his San Sebastian College-Recoletos squad pull off a come-from-behind victory over Jose Rizal University in the NCAA Season 97 women's volleyball tournament on Wednesday.
According to Gorayeb, what they trained hard during practices did not come out in the game against the Lady Bombers, especially in the early part of the contest, where they went down 0-2 and on the verge of a sweep loss.
"Okay, sige panalo. Panalo is panalo, kahit five sets, or three sets. But for a team who is doing everything, practicing everyday to develop their skills, hindi dapat ganon 'yung nilalaro nila," Gorayeb lamented during the post-game interview.
"Okay lang 'yan pero hindi ganong kasama."
With the Lady Stags down, they turned to clutch Reyann Cañete and rookie Kat Santos who delivered the finishing punches as San Sebastian cruised to their back-to-back wins for share of second spot with Arellano University.
But prior to Cañete and Santos' timely attacks in the fifth set, San Sebastian almost lost to JRU as Gorayeb cited lack of communication on their side.
"Sabi ko nga sa kanila, anim lang ang kalaban natin [pero] ang kalaban ko ngayon ay dose, 'yung anim doon sa kabila plus silang lahat. Nagkanya-kanya kasi sila ng takbo ng isip," Gorayeb added.
"Nawala na sila sa focus, 'yung setter kung saan-saan na binibigay."
Luckily for San Sebastian, they got the hard-fought victory to stay in the upper half of the standings with a 3-1 win-loss slate. The win, Gorayeb stressed, is highly important as it boosted their chances of making it to the Final Four.
"Ang hirap kasi maayos naman 'yung naging ensayo namin, hindi naman ganyan. Tapos pagdating sa laro iba [so] ang hirap mag-adjust kasi mga bata eh, pero sabi ko nga you should not learn things the hard way," the seasoned tactician added.
"Pinagaaralan naman natin 'yan eh. Wala naman sa unahan 'yung pagsisisi, nasa huli. Eh kung natalo kami doon, nawasak 'yung pangarap naming pumasok sa top four."
—JMB, GMA News
