Baby Warriors coach confident team can recover in Cesafi v’ball

THE UNIVERSITY of San Carlos (USC) Baby Warriors have been one of the championship contenders in the Cesafi volleyball tournament in recent years.

Proof of this is that the team won the 2013 and 2014 Cesafi girls’ title.

But times have been rough recently as the Baby Warriors failed to make it back to the finals in the past two seasons. They settled for third in the 2015 season before dropping to fourth last year.

And USC isn’t off to a good start this year.

The Baby Warriors lost to the University of Cebu (UC) and the University of San Jose-Recoletos (USJ-R) in straight sets over the weekend to start the season with a 0-2 (win-loss) record.

USC head coach Dominic Themy Macuto believes the team only lacks a bit of experience and he is confident that his wards will be better as the season progresses.

“We really need a lot of exposure because most of my players are newbies,” Macuto said. “During practice inside the school, they really do well. But if [they play] outside the school, they really struggle.”

He said he is hoping the girls will be able to bring everything they’ve learned in practice into the game, especially as they prepare to go up against the defending champions Sacred Heart School – Ateneo de Cebu this Saturday at the USC Main gym.

And since the USC secondary volleyball teams have their practices at the USC North Campus, Macuto said court familiarization will be important for the team.

“We really need to familiarize the court because we don’t practice at the USC Main gym. We already studied the players of Ateneo, the way they play each player and we really need to play defense against them,” Macuto added.