The FEU Lady Tamaraws will have their biggest motivator at the sidelines with head coach Tina Salak pushing them to their limits in UAAP Season 87.
FEU head coach Tina Salak isn’t tempering her expectations for the Lady Tamaraws as they seek greater heights in their ongoing campaign in UAAP Season 87.
After staging a four-set victory over UST to open the second round, Salak said that she isn’t one to be satisfied easily with her players, especially after they showed their true capabilities in a Final Four appearance last year.
Coming off of a year where they also pushed eventual champions NU to the brink in their Final Four matchup, Salak knows that they have much more to offer.
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Touting a 5-3 slate with an up-and-down campaign so far, every game now holds more and more impact for the Lady Tamaraws.
“Mataas yung expectation[s] ko talaga kasi binibigyan ko na sila ng higher responsibility coming into this second round,” said Salak after the win over the Golden Tigresses.
“Then yung expectations din namin, masyado na ring mataas yung at stake regarding yung sa positioning ng teams and yung win-loss [record]. Hopefully magandang start ito for the second round and looking forward for more,” she added.
But even as Salak is looking ahead at the race for semifinal spots, it isn’t lost to the veteran coach that she would need to guide her team every time they enter the taraflex to make sure that they don’t get lost in the narrative.
After passing their test against UST this second round, they shift their focus to the rest of the season.
“‘Yon lang ang gino-goal namin ngayon. Isa-isa. Kung problema namin ngayon UST, next game namin UE. Isa-isahin natin hangga’t sa makuha namin yung panalo,” she said.
The Lady Tamaraws are currently tied with the Golden Tigresses in the standings but things can get complicated due to tiebreakers.
Naturally, FEU will look to create distance and the Lady Tams get their initial chance when they return to action on Wednesday against the listless UE Lady Warriors.