Nicole Macandili: Heart over height

The DLSU Lady Spikers are on a mission to redeem themselves this season after failing to secure their fourth consecutive UAAP championship. With trusted veteran Abigail Maraño graduating, head coach Ramil de Jesus will now have to rely on his younger players to step up and bring back the championship to Taft Avenue.

One of the players that de Jesus will heavily rely on is libero Nicole Macandili. The 5 foot 3 Lady Spiker, now in her second year with the team, played briefly in grade school for De La Salle Lipa before moving on to play high school volleyball for De La Salle Zobel.

In a sport ruled by taller players, Macandili never considered her height as a disadvantage and worked her way to a spot in de Jesus’ line-up. “I took it as a challenge instead of a limitation. Kasi ang mataba pwede magpapayat pero ang maliit hindi pwede magpatangkad. I just have to maximize what the Lord has given me,” she says.

Whatever Macandili lacks in height, she definitely makes up for with her work ethic and perseverance, something she has been doing since she started playing volleyball back in the fifth grade.

“Every player has something in common or at least any of the following traits, syempre nandyan yung heart to win, skills, attitude, focus, aggressiveness, and more. Siguro ako personally, given na maliit ako, so limited lang yung pwede kong gawin,” the psychology major explains. “Malamang di ako magiging effective na spiker so I want to do my best, using all the traits I mentioned despite my limitations, to help my team reach our goals.”

It isn’t easy for a student-athlete to fulfill academic responsibilities and at the same time excel on the court. When asked how she is doing so far, Macandili shares, “Mahirap pero kung gusto, may paraan. Our seniors advised us to balance our time wisely at wag maging tamad kasi it’s a privilege for some of us to be even studying here.”

With the start of the season right around the corner, Macandili is fully aware of the pressure that the whole team is facing because of last year’s setback. “Hindi mawawala yung frustration and pressure dahil sa nangyare last year. But we took it as a challenge that we have more to improve on and that we shouldn’t underestimate all our competition. With this, nagtulong-tulong both players and coaching staff to prepare for this coming season,” Macandili expounded.

Although confident of their training in the offseason, Macandili also acknowledged the improvement of other schools. “The team has done so much to prepare for this upcoming season, hopefully we could adjust fast enough kasi hindi lang naman kami yung naghanda, syempre pinaghandaan din ito ng iba pang teams,” she adds.

Only time will tell how bright the future is for Macandili. When asked if she would consider playing professional volleyball after college, the sophomore confidently answered, “As of now, hindi ko muna iniisip yung ganyan kasi ang main focus ko is studying and collegiate volleyball. But it has crossed my mind and I’m not closing my doors to it.”

With her undeniable heart and passion for the game, the Lady Spikers’ future is definitely in good hands with talented youngsters like Macandili on the court for many seasons to come.