MANILA – After winning two pre-season championships, pressure mounts on University of the Philippines Lady Maroons ahead of the UAAP Season 81 women’s volleyball, which will start on Feb. 16.
Lady Maroons head coach Godfrey Okomu said that his squad is still far from being “title contenders” in the UAAP despite capturing the Premier V League and Philippine Superliga collegiate titles late last year.
“It means a lot of pressure – for the players and for me. That’s what it means,” said Okumu. “We wouldn’t like to play so well in the offseason, and when the real tournament comes up, we don’t perform.”
The Kenyam mentor added: “UAAP is another game altogether. We only played against three of the (UAAP) teams. So, I don’t wanna judge ourselves before playing against everybody else.”
“We want to go out there and win the UAAP, but we have to tread carefully. We have to be polite as we move on, train and work hard because it’s a really big challenge for us,” he said.
During the two pre-season tournaments, Okomu managed to see all the rookies and veterans at his disposal but admitted that he has yet to make up his mind who will be in the UAAP roster.
“I’ve played almost twenty-eight, at least twenty-five or twenty-six players. I’ve been able to recycle them in all the tournaments we’ve played,” he said. “It’s gonna be hard to choose, so don’t ask me my line-up for UAAP yet.”
Okomu added: “But, for me, it is a good problem to have. All of them were talented players. All of them were deserving to be lined up.”/PN
