Do-or-die games tend to bring out the best in certain players. Some rise to the occasion while others crumble under the spotlight. Tomorrow at 5 pm in the San Juan Arena, the DLSU Green Spikers will face a familiar foe in the NCBA Wildcats as both squads will battle for their lives in the Spikers’ Turf Collegiate Conference.
Both DLSU and NCBA came from losses in their previous games, with La Salle failing to win against the EAC Generals and the Wildcats succumbing to the UP Fighting Maroons last Wednesday.
A little over two weeks ago, the two teams faced each other, with NCBA overcoming a two-set deficit to steal the game from the Taft-based squad in five sets, 25-27, 22-25, 25-22, 25-23, 15-9. The resilient Wildcats showed composure in the match, which caught the Green Spikers — who were, at that time, riding a four-game winning streak — off guard.
Ways to win
It was unfortunate for DLSU to suffer from Howard Mojica’s onslaught in their last match as he almost single-handedly won the game for the Generals. On paper they appear at par with EAC, but Mojica was such a force for the Generals.
Keeping errors at a minimum was not the issue for the Spikers as they committed 10 fewer turnovers against the Generals. However, it was a major concern in their outing against NCBA since they gave up 43 points off their errors against the 32 given by the Wildcats. Limiting these mistakes will play an important role for the Green Spikers in the rubber match.
More important for La Salle though is to maintain their composure. Green Spikers head coach Ronald Dulay shared that in their loss to NCBA, losing focus dealt their team a fatal blow as they failed to regain the rhythm they had in the earlier sets.
Expect an exciting game tomorrow as both teams will compete for the remaining semis spot with everything they’ve got. In the end, one goes on in the Spikers’ Turf, while the other goes home.
