Despite coming off a straight sets loss in Game One, University of Sto. Tomas rookie Josh Ybañez never lost faith in the Tiger Spikers.
That, even if they went down 0-2 in Game Two of the 2022 V-League Men’s Collegiate Challenge finals against National University last Wednesday at the Paco Arena.
The Bulldogs exerted their dominance by taking the first two sets of the match. Unfortunately for them, UST came back from the deficit to crash the party and deny NU a chance to sweep the title series.
In the end, the Tiger Spikers completed a five-set, 21-25, 19-25, 25-22, 25-23, 15-12 reversal over the reigning Spikers’ Turf Open Conference champs to send the series to a do-or-die Game Three.
“Mindset talaga namin is ‘wag isipin na malakas yung kalaban. Parang kahit sino ‘man yung kaharap, lalaban at lalaban lang saka ‘wag i-underestimate yung kakayahan ng team, dapat mas isipin namin na kaya naming makipagsabayan,” said Ybañez.
“Nung una, alam kong may ilalaban talaga yung team namin. Alam naming kaya naming sumabay, yun lang yung tumulong samin na sinet namin sa utak namin na kaya namin,” he added.
Ybañez dropped 25 points on top of 19 excellent digs and eight excellent receptions to help the Tiger Spikers live to fight another day.
The pint-sized outside hitter said that the team did a pretty good job in moving on from their horror start which paved the way for their come-from-behind triumph.
“Pinagusapan namin nung nalamangan kami ng two sets is talagang kalimutan lang yung nangyari. Forget, move on, and then laban na ulit,” said Ybañez
“Lalaban pa rin kami. ‘Di namin bibitawan ‘to. Nasimulan na namin kaya tatapusin din namin.”
