Nine months since their last tussle in the previous season, Lyceum of the Philippines University still remembers its four-set loss to Emilio Aguinaldo College. That win gave EAC its breakthrough victory in the season which eventually proved costly for Lyceum as it missed out on the Final Four round.
But this season, the Lady Pirates made sure to get the last laugh against the Lady Generals after pulling off a hard-fought 23-25, 25-18, 25-23, 25-23 win on Tuesday.
"Actually sabi ko kailangan naming sipagan kasi sobrang sipag talaga ng EAC e," said Lyceum head coach Cromwell Garcia.
"Sobrang tibay nilang dumipensa so sabi ko walang hihinto, hindi natin titigilan kasi pag nag-blink kami dyan, there's a possibility na 'yung last season, mangyari ulit sa amin."
("Actually, I said we needed to work hard because EAC is also really hard-working... They're so strong defensively so I said, no one can stop, we can't let up because in a blink, there's a possibility that what happened last season could happen to us again.")
Garcia also highlighted how important the win was for Lyceum as the league is now approaching the last few games in the elimination round, which they want to finish strong en route to a Final Four appearance.
The tactician added that their previous losses, especially their five-set defeat at the hands of defending champion De La Salle-College of Saint Benilde over the weekend, would be their motivation moving forward.
"Dumidikit na 'yung labanan para sa top four so nando'n na kami eh, sabi ko nga one game at a time lang," he said.
"'Yung nangyari sa amin sa Benilde, sobrang daming lessons na nakuha and I think some of them, naibigay namin ngayon lalo na sa fourth set."
("The battle for the top four is getting tight so I said we should take it one game at a time... What happened against Benilde, we learned so many lessons from that and I think some of them, we were able to show today especially in the fourth set.")
—JMB, GMA Integrated News
