DLSU Lady Spikers, What Went Wrong?

photo from pinoyexchange.com

For the second straight year, the girls from Taft bowed down to their arch-rivals, the Katipunan-based Ateneo Lady Eagles. The Lady Eagles claimed their back-to-back championships after taking down the De La Salle Lady Spikers in their fourth meeting in the finals last March 14, 2015 at the Mall of Asia Arena.

It has been a tough season for the green squad. They lost their their main gun Ara Galang in a nasty fall during their do-or-die game against the National Lady Bulldogs, resulting to multiple knee injuries, and then eventually lost Camille Cruz after a nasty fall too during the first game in the finals series. My prayers are for the fast recovery of these girls. But no excuses from the other members of the team, injuries are part of the sports.

So, what's lacking from them in the finals?

Poor Floor Defense. Ara Galang is not only the team's #1 attacker, but also their #1 digger and receiver. Pretty amazing right? But the team shouldn't have relied on Ara on the digging and receiving department, they have the libero for that. That's the reason why, I think, their floor defense is the biggest suspect on their finals lost to the Ateneo Lady Eagles. Alyssa Valdez had a great field day in the game 1, dropping balls left and right, abusing the poor floor defense of the girls in green. Although Dawn Macandili, the Lady Spikers' libero had some great saves, most of the time, her receives were off - resulting to poor executions of plays.

On and Off Blocking. The Lady Spikers is the #1 blocking team in the league. But the best blocking team that we knew did not show up during the finals series. They were very inconsistent in blocking. They had great kill blocks, but most of the time, the blockers couldn't keep up with the pace of the girls in blue,

Poor Ball Distribution. This has been the issue of the girls in green for the entire season. Their plays are too Ara-centric. Their middles used to be the bread and butter of the Lady Spikers, but this season their middles only had a few touches compared to Ara's. They relied much on Ara and when Ara when down on a nasty fall, they're left with inexperienced attackers.

Firepower. This is what the teams lacks the most when Ara's out. They miss the services of Ara in the attacking department. Galang's average points per game is more or less 17 points. That's huge. With Ara nowhere in court, the green team's left with soft attackers- and that won't work against a team with excellent floor defense.

I guess that's it. The coaching staff of the Lady Spikers need to make a lot of adjustments/developments on these areas if they want to bring back the crown to Taft.