SAN Sebastian College Head Coach Roger Gorayeb does not want his players to be too confident, after bagging the outright finals berth and thrice-to-beat advantage in the finals of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Season 91 women’s volleyball tournament.
The Lady Stags are planning to bring back the title to their school since winning it for six straight years, from 2005 to 2011.
And despite their advantage as prize for sweeping the elimination phase, Gorayeb, who has been coaching San Sebastian volleyball for more than a decade, is elated with the incentives they’ve earned.
“It’s hard to lean on a thrice-to-beat, because a lot of teams already failed despite that huge advantage,” Gorayeb said, after completing the nine-game eliminations sweep against College of Saint Benilde (CSB).
The perfect 9-0 eliminations record rewarded the Lady Stags of an automatic finals seat and a thrice-to-beat incentive, but Gorayeb remained wary.
“You can’t say what could happen,” he said. “As much as possible, we’ll try to maintain our game, because we don’t have the height factor; all we have is pickup points of the players and defense.”
The stepladder semifinals started on Tuesday, with the Lady Blazers prevailing over University of Perpetual Help System Dalta.
CSB will meet defending champion Arellano University on Friday for another do-or-die contest and get the right to meet San Sebastian in the finals.
“They’re all equally strong. All of them are tall, and it’s really our disadvantage but we can make do of other skills in volleyball, like defense and speed; that’s what we have to do,” said Gorayeb, who is also the women’s volleyball national team coach.
Gorayeb will continue to bank on his reigning NCAA Most Valuable Player Gretchel Soltones but he wants the supporting cast to take charge. They will also be the key in ending the four-year title drought.
“It’s given that Gretchel would create for us; how bad her start is, she will still deliver. But the biggest factor here is our supporting cast,” he mentioned.
The Gorayeb-coached squad will take a weeklong break, as it waits for its opponent in the titular showdown.
“What I want here is this one-week rest, but it could be good or bad for us.”
“As a gift to them, I will give them a one-day rest, then we will continue to grind hard again,” he added. “It’s hard to relax, because I want to get the first game, whoever we will face, to at least maintain the advantage on our side.”