Cebuana Soltones vows to move on, focus now on NCAA beach volley

San Sebastian’s Grethcel Soltones and Dangie Encarnacion during last year’s awarding of the NCAA women’s beach volleyball title at the Boardwalk of Subic Freeport. (INQUIRER)

WHILE the ending to her career in collegiate indoor volleyball was far from ideal, Cebuana volleyball star Grethcel Soltones is keeping her head high and her eyes on a different prize.

In spite holding a thrice-to-beat advantage for the second straight year, the Soltones-led San Sebastian Lady Stags still faltered and eventually lost to Arellano University in the NCAA Season 92 women’s volleyball finals last week.

The pride of Catmon town, northern Cebu admitted in an exclusive talk with Cebu Daily News that she felt sad, but not bad, and chose to look at the brighter side of things instead of sulking.

“I’ve learned that in every loss, may pagkakataon na binibigay din,” said Soltones, whose career ended with three Most Valuable Player awards but no championship.

Soltones said that with the indoor volleyball crown out of the question already, she is focused on defending the beach volleyball crown in the NCAA tournament, which begins today.

San Sebastian is the three-time champions in this meet and is shooting for a fourth straight title. Soltones is confident she can deliver the goods in this tournament.

“Yes I am [focused]. And I am going to get [the title],” Soltones said.

Joining Soltones in the team are Alyssa Eroa and Daureen Santos.

When asked to discuss what went wrong with her Lady Stags squad that went undefeated in the elimination round, Soltones said that they all lacked the composure to grind out wins in tightly contested matches.

“Courage and heart to win. I don’t know why, but as a person, no one can teach you how to be brave. Nobody can really teach you except yourself,” Soltones shared. “I feel sad not bad because Arellano also wanted to win,” she added.