San Beda University head coach Ariel Dela Cruz said they used their elimination round loss to Arellano University as motivation for when the two teams crossed paths again in the NCAA Season 98 men's volleyball stepladder Final Four.
The Chiefs managed to escape the Red Spikers the first time they faced each other last February 22, eking out a 25-23, 26-24, 22-25, 23-25, 16-14 thriller behind a 34-point outing from Carl Berdal.
But Dela Cruz and the whole Mendiola crew made sure to turn things around the next time they locked horns with Arellano.
San Beda pulled off a 27-25, 12-25, 25-17 25-18 win against Arellano on Wednesday to punch their ticket to the finals against defending champion University of Perpetual Help System DALTA.
"Unang-una, thank you sa Panginoon, binigyan kami ng lakas at iyong mindset namin naibalik namin lalong lalo na galing kami sa talo sa kanila noong first round (eliminations)," Dela Cruz said.
"So sabi ko nga, mas uhaw kami sa panalo kasi mas ma-build namin iyong confidence level namin para manalo kami dito sa Arellano ngayon kasi tinalo kami sa first round (elims)."
("First of all, thank you to God, he gave us the strength and we got our mindset back to where it was, especially coming off a loss to them in the elimination round.. So I said, we wanted the win more and we were able to build our confidence level to win against Arellano today because of the loss.")
Dela Cruz added that he never lost faith in his players, stressing he believes this is their time and they plan to go all out when they go up against the ALTAs.
"Siguro, ano lang iyan, ang sabi ko sa kanila pana-panahon so may panahon na may malakas ito, may panahon na malakas iyong ibang eskwelahan so sabi ko sa kanila time niyo ngayon so kung aabot tayo ng finals, time niyo ngayon," he said.
"Step by step lang, kung matungtong natin-matapos natin iyong Final Four saka natin magambisyon sa finals so ito nga, na-abot namin iyong finals so ang ano ko lang, thankful ako sa mga player ko kasi marunong silang sumunod."
("I told them it goes around, there will be a time this team is good, and another time another school so I told them, if we reach the finals, this is your time... Step by step, if we make it to the Final Four, then we can have the ambition to make the finals. So here we are, we reached the finals so I'm just thankful to my players that they were able to follow the plan.")
The last time San Beda trooped to the championship round was in 2012 against, incidentally, Perpetual where the Las Piñas won as part of a four-peat run from 2010 to 2013.
—JMB, GMA Integrated News
