La salle rookie wows almadro
It’s expected that she’ll play that way especially because she’s confident
De La Salle University rookie Angel Canino’s explosive outing didn’t come as a surprise for Ateneo de Manila University head coach Oliver Alamadro.
In fact, the mentor was impressed with the Lady Spiker’s confidence despite playing in her first Ateneo-La Salle rivalry match in the University Athletic Association of the Philippines Season 85 women’s volleyball tournament.
Canino was lights out right from the opening serve as she did most of the damage in La Salle’s 25-16, 25-20, 25-13, drubbing of Ateneo on Sunday at the Mall of Asia Arena.
“Well, ever since high school, Angel has been a promising talent,” Almadro said of Canino, who dropped 23 points in the Lady Spikers’ third straight win in as many games.
The former UAAP girls Most valuable Player and champion from De La Salle-Zobel showed no signs of jitters even in front of more than 10,000-strong gate attendance.
“It’s expected that she’ll play that way especially because she’s confident. Their whole team is confident. She’s able to negate the confidence of whomever we put in front of her,” Almadro said.
“I’m not surprised about how she played because she’s very confident and talented, very impressive.”
Canino unleashed 21 kills, a kill block and an ace on top of nine digs and five excellent receptions for La Salle’s 11th straight head-to-head win against Ateneo dating back to 2017.
The Lady Spikers winger uncorked eight points in the opening frame and her energy rubbed off on her teammates.
Blue eagles skipper Faith Nisperos also expressed respect for Canino’s game in their first meeting since their rivalry back in high school.
“Of course, I already know her skills and the way she played. I expect that from her I already saw how she played her past games,” Nisperos said.
“Well, Coach O was right, she’s confident.”
Almadro hoped that the Blue eagles, who fell to a 1-2 win-loss slate, would learn from their experience against the Lady Spikers moving forward.
“I’m sure, hopefully, that team that pushed us now will just push us forward. I always say those great teams will always push us forward,” Almadro, who has yet to win against La Salle since taking over the Ateneo women’s team coaching job in 2019, said.
“Hopefully, we can bounce back on the other teams. What happened in this game, as Faith said, is continuous learning. Many people will say, process, process until now, we need results, but sometimes, results are a process also. You just have to keep moving, undoing the things we need to do, especially inside the court.”
Ateneo will take on Far eastern University on Wednesday.