BBEAL SEASON 33: UP Baguio Lady Maroons cheered despite loss to UB Lady Cardinals

Defeat is untraceable from the UP Lady Maroon’s faces as they loudly cheered the University of the Philippines fight chant in the 33rd BBEAL (Baguio-Benguet Educational Athletic League) at the CCDC (Cordillera Career Development College) gym on February 29.

The team showed positivity even though the UB (University of Baguio) Lady Cardinals thwarted their chance to win on the first day of the annual inter-collegiate sports event.

According to Korinne Laza, Lady Maroon’s coach, “Kailangan pa ng tatag ng puso…I would say na kabado kasi yung mga bata, puro sila freshies and kailangang mag-step up ng mga seniors, mga second years para I-motivate pa yung team nila.”

(Courage is needed. I would say that the players were nervous, most of them are freshmen and the sophomores need to step up to motivate the team)

With several service and ball handling errors, the UP women’s volleyball team suffered from 10-25, 13-25 and 10-25.

“Kaya naman eh.” Nicole Rigayen, Captain Ball of the volleyball team, said.

(The team can [win].)

“Sayang kasi pinabayaan lang. Lumalaban naman eh siguro naunahan lang kami ng kaba.” she further added.

(Too bad [we lost the game] because we slacked off. We were fighting, maybe we were just nervous.)

Coach Laza explained that one of the team’s greatest struggles during the preparation is the limited practice hours. She said, “Dahil sa limitations sa HKP pinagbabawal kasi nila na um-over ng four hours yung training. Ang training namin from Monday is 5 to 9 pm and on Tuesdays and Thursdays is 6 to 9 pm. 1:30 minutes ang alloted for women’s and 1:30 minutes for men’s volleyball team.”

(Because of the limitations in HKP; they prohibited us to exceed 4 hours to train. Our training from Monday is 5 to 9 pm and on Tuesdays and Thursdays is 6 to 9 pm. 1:30 minutes are only allocated for the women's and men's volleyball team.)

The Lady Maroons will have their next match against PCC (Pines City Colleges) on March 3 at Saint Louis University Gym.

by Alyssa Gail Castanares