Brazilian coach Sergio Veloso says he's happy to see his players in Ateneo wear many hats as the Blue Eagles deal with injuries in UAAP Season 87 women's volleyball.
There’s not much more Sergio Veloso can ask of his 11-woman roster for Ateneo in the UAAP Season 87 women’s volleyball tournament, after injuries derailed their campaign.
After season-ending injuries to three players coming in quick succession since the start of the tournament, the Blue Eagles have had to make do with who they have, and they've done a lot of adjustments along the way.
Against the UE Lady Warriors in their last game of Round 1 on Saturday, Ateneo flaunted their versatility as they survived the hapless Lady Warriors in a five-set thriller, with two former middle blockers in AC Miner and Zey Pacia stepping up as wing spikers.
[RELATED: UAAP: AC Miner, Ateneo stave off hapless UE, snap three-game losing streak to end Round 1]
Finishing with a combined 40 points, Miner and Pacia drew praise from Veloso, who has been asking much of his players owing to the situation.
“AC, she is a middle, and when she played in the middle, she was good, when I need to put her in the opposite, she is very good too. This is good for us. Our team needs this in the situation now, because we have now only nine hitters — two setters… And Pacia’s the same,” Veloso said.
“Pacia last season, [she] was a middle. And I start this situation like AC this year, she played middle and sometimes in the opposite, and this season, I start to use her in the practice as outside. But we need to use [her] now. She doesn’t have time to make adjustments and she played well. It’s good.”
Before the tournament even started, Ateneo took a blow when Jlo Delos Santos suffered a season-ending injury in one of their last practices during opening weekend.
Then in their opening game against Adamson, Zel Tsunashima was the one to go down.
Recently, Sobe Buena also suffered an injury--which is likely to put her out of commission for the rest of the year. As the roster continues to grow thinner, Veloso had to make players adjust to different roles and positions.
“[It’s also] the same with Yvana [Sulit]. Yvana, the last two weeks, I start to work with Yvana in the opposite too because I need to take more options,” said Veloso.
“Sometimes, I have a little exact point to do something different and need help [from these players] and I’m so proud, so proud, because they understand this. Congrats [to my players] because I know it’s hard,” he added.
Entering his second year as head coach of Ateneo, there were a lot of expectations and plans for Veloso, as he was finally able to secure a lineup that could perform with the best of them. But with things that were out of control, it didn’t work out.
Now midway through the season, Veloso is simply happy to see his players continue to push despite everything.
“I’m so happy [with the win]. This is the first. But the most important, they (the players) continue to play, they try to play in the high level all the time. Today our service was [done] very well. You can push the old sets and we played very very well in the defense.” he said.
“They [dug] a lot of balls and continued play, and this is hard because sometimes, you hit the ball, return, you hit the ball, return. We had to play the situation but congrats for all players.”
The win over the UE Lady Warriors snapped a three-game losing streak for the Blue Eagles and they finished Round 1 with a 2-5 slate.