The Far Eastern University (FEU) men’s volleyball team rolled past the University of the Philippines (UP) Fighting Maroons in four sets, 25-20, 25-14, 19-25, 25-9, in the University Athletic Association of the Philippines (UAAP) season 81, April 14, at the Mall of Asia Arena in Pasay City.

Coming from a one-week preparation, the Morayta-based squad finished with 48 attacks, 13 kill blocks, and three aces with Peter Quiel emerging as the best scorer with 15 points.

With the victory, FEU head coach Reynaldo Diaz is filled with gratitude towards the result and as he recalls it, “Blessing at ang maganda, dire-diretso ‘yung blessing, ‘yung challenges, nalalampasan ng team kasi ang status ng team ngayon, may mga injuries (Blessing, and what’s good is that we’re receiving continuous blessings, then the team overcomes the challenges because the status of the team now is that there are players with injuries).”

With injuries coming into play, the team found reinforcements from their rookies who played well to help steer the team towards their 10th win. It was led by Mark Calado who finished with eight points.

“Napakaganda kasi ibig sabihin alam nila kung ano ‘yung trabaho ng bawat isa. Magandang sign para sa team na ‘yung mga first year mo, nagtatrabaho’t binibigay ‘yung best [sa laro] (It’s really good because it implies that they know the tasks of each other, and it’s a good sign for the team as well that the rookies play their best in the game),” coach Diaz added.

Veteran Jude Garcia dropped 12 points followed by FEU skipper Richard Solis with 11 markers. Owen Suarez contributed four markers with 28 excellent sets, while Vince Lorenzo added 13 digs and 19 out of 24 receptions for 79 percent efficiency.

With only two remaining games against De La Salle University (DLSU) and defending champion National University (NU), coach Diaz told the FEU Advocate that his team will focus on improving their service reception.

“Hindi tayo titigil, more on corrections tayo sa service receive kasi ‘yun ‘yung malaking lapses natin tsaka ‘yung depensa, doon tayo mag-fo-focus (We’ll not stop then more on corrections in service-receive because that’s where the team encounter major lapses and then the defense, we’ll focus there),” coach Diaz expressed.

The green-and-gold spikers will resume action against DLSU on April 24 at the FilOil Flying V Centre in San Juan City.

-Mark Steven V. Donque