V-League: Overconfidence caused NU's game one collapse - Gorayeb

By Renee Avena Fopalan, GMA News

Published May 24, 2013 4:04pm

Ateneo Lady Eagles head coach Roger Gorayeb believes that it was National University's overconfidence that caused them to suffer a straight sets defeat against the league's defending champions, Thursday in game one of their best-of-three Finals series in the First Conference of the Shakey's V-League 10th season.

"Maybe overconfident sila. Sabi isi-straight sets daw kami e. Hindi ko alam," said Gorayeb, who refused to cite the source of the comment.

"Ayoko na magsabi. Siyempre side court. Even the critics would always say dahil tinalo nila kami before, but that was a no-bearing game," said Gorayeb. Earlier this month, NU had defeated Ateneo in a straight sets affair during the quarterfinal round.

[Related: NU keeps perfect record after battle of undefeateds]

"This is what matters most. That's why we have to prepare for this. We want to be one of the top two teams para naman ma-defend namin yung championship namin. The entry of [guest player] Jeng [Bualee], malaking tulong samin," Gorayeb added.

Gorayeb shared that the Lady Eagles used NU's prediction as motivation:

"Naging challenge din kasi sa amin yung prior to the game sabi daw e three sets lang daw kami. So siyempre it's always a challenge for us. We never underestimated any of our opponents. I never predicted a straight sets win against any of our opponents.

"Hayaan mo sila if they predict they'll win against us in three sets. We can never underestimate NU; malalaki yan e," Gorayeb added. "Meron lang tayong pangkiliti sa kanila ng konti na kapag nag-click, edi salamat. Pag di nagclick, magiisip nanaman ako kung anong gagawin kong adjustment. Pero kasi maganda lang yung nilaro nung mga bata and I'm very proud of them."

Determined to claim their third straight V-League First Conference title, Gorayeb saved some of his best advice for the Finals series:

"Lagi ko sinasabi sa kanila, you don't go here to play. We go here to win. Ilaban niyo na ng palitan ng mukha yan tutal Taraflex naman yan [floor] at marami nang operasyon sa mukha ngayon." - AMD, GMA News

Tags: volleyball, rogergorayeb, vleague, ateneodemanilauniversity