SAN Sebastian College is three games away from sweeping its way to the 92nd National Collegiate Athletic Association women’s volleyball finals.
But coach Roger Gorayeb is far more concerned at getting his team improve in time for their playoff battles.
“Yes, we want to sweep, who wouldn’t want that?” asked Gorayeb in Filipino. “But I want my team to improve on many aspects like defense and not relying too much on one player but play more as a team.”
The Lady Stags have emerged as the only unbeaten team after winning their first six outings and could advance straight to the best-of-three championship round if they could hurdle their last three assignments.
San Sebastian College’s last three games though will be against Final Four contenders Perpetual Help (3-2) on Jan. 13, Lyceum of the Philippines University (4-1) on Jan. 23 and defending champion College of St. Benilde (5-1) on Jan. 25.
“It’s hard to think of a sweep early because we know our last three games are against strong teams,” said Gorayeb.
There was some concern, however, about reigning back-to-back MVP Grethcel Soltones’ conditioning.
Soltones has been far from peak form and is currently just second in the league’s best scoring as she averaged just 16.17 points a game, a shade behind last year’s Finals Most Valuable Player and St. Benilde star Jeanette Panaga’s 17 hits.