By Gio Carlo D. Castro

The Far Eastern University (FEU) Tamaraws dominated the University of the East (UE) Red Warriors in straight sets, 25-18, 25-19, 25-12, in the second round of eliminations of the University Athletic Association of the Philippines (UAAP) season 81 men’s volleyball tournament, April 7, at the Smart Araneta Coliseum in Quezon City.

Veteran Jude Garcia led the green-and-gold squad with 11 points coming from eight attacks, two blocks, and an ace, while John Paul Bugaoan chipped in a total of 10 points. Redi John Paler and Peter John Quiel provided eight points apiece.

Coming off from their second loss of the season over Adamson University (AdU) Soaring Falcons, FEU head coach Rey Diaz expressed that his team’s goal is to improve from their errors and shortcomings for this game.

“Ang objective naman lagi ng team is to correct ‘yung mga mistakes (The team’s objective is always to correct the mistakes),” Diaz said.

Moreover, after absorbing their five-set defeat against the Falcons, Diaz reminded his team not to take this as negative – for this will serve as an advantage to look for improvements of the squad.

As he recalled it, “Sabi ko nga blessing ‘yun, so i-take namin siya as a blessing tapos ang maganda niyan nakita naman namin ‘yung mga mali which is nag-reflect naman ngayon (Like what I said [to them], that [loss] was a blessing, so we took it as a blessing then we saw what were the errors which reflected for [improvement] in today’s game).”

With three remaining elimination games, FEU is now expected to enter the Final Four race with a twice-to-beat advantage. Amid the pressure, Diaz said that the coaching staff is always there to remind the Tams to stay focused upon the goal for this season.

“‘Yung team ano ‘yan, sabi ko nga, [if we] ‘start strong’ dapat we ‘finish stronger’. Laging nandiyan ‘yung coaches to remind them na focus lagi doon sa goal tsaka ‘yung team alam talaga nila. Alam nila kung ano ‘yung mararating ng team, alam nila kung saan papunta ‘yung team (The team is, like what I said, if we ‘start strong’, we should ‘finish stronger’. The coaches are always there to remind them to always focus on the goal and the team really knows. They know what the team will achieve, they know where the team will be),” he said.

FEU improved to a 9-2 win-loss standing for the solo second seed, while defending champion National University (NU) remained atop with a 10-1 win-loss slate.

The Morayta-based spikers will face the University of the Philippines (UP) Fighting Maroons on April 14 at the Mall of Asia Arena in Pasay City.