Ateneo coach Almadro says Eagles need to address confidence issues amid early slump
MANILA, Philippines – The Ateneo Blue Eagles are not quite having the start they wanted in the early stages of the UAAP Season 85 women’s volleyball tournament after falling down to a 1-2 record.
Now reeling from a lopsided sweep loss against their rival La Salle Lady Spikers, the Blue Eagles have by no means convinced even their staunchest supporters with their run so far, as even their lone win against the winless UE Lady Warriors included a concerning third-set loss before ending with a fourth-set rout.
Ateneo head coach Oliver Almadro, however, is taking the bumpy stretch in stride, even happy that it’s happening now rather than later.
“First, we’ll take the positivity here that we risked starters now, right now, so we can force everyone to gain some confidence. Unfortunately, each player’s confidence is not on the same level,” he said in a mix of English and Filipino.
“I guess we have to work on the continuous confidence and we can get that through continuous repetitions. I guess we have to do more on the things where we’re lacking confidence in. I’m sure we’ll bounce back.”
Almadro, who has been heavily criticized recently on social media for his supposed attitude towards his players, has not yet set his core rotation in stone after three games.
Apart from usual stalwarts Faith Nisperos, Vanie Gandler, and Roma Doromal, no other Ateneo player has gained consistent playing time as Almadro has shuffled around the likes of Lyann de Guzman, Geezel Tsunashima, Yvana Sulit, and Taks Fujimoto, among others.
Tsunashima in particular was a bright spot against UE with a career-high 13 points, but she only saw less than two full sets of action for a 3-point outing against La Salle as the rotation rigodon continued.
“Everyone’s confidence needs to show up at the same time, because others are getting it back, but others are also going down again,” Almadro continued. “We have to be confident as a team and not focus on individual play.”
“As I said, if you play for yourself, you could be great, but if you play for bigger things than yourself, we’d all build our confidence. We’ll work on it. We’ll work on it.”
Obviously, Ateneo’s starting run is a small sample size and there are plenty of games left, but Almadro is looking to maximize his role right now to fast-track his wards’ rise in confidence, and hopefully for them, their winning momentum along with it.
“First of all, us first. We have to focus on our skills, our realizations about the games that have passed,” he continued. “We’ll lay on the table the positive things we have and remove or improve on what we lack. That’s it, that’s what every team needs.”
“The UAAP is so fast, you have to recover right away.” – Rappler.com