BRAZILIAN coach Joao Luciano Kiodai had glowing words for his wards in the national team but stressed the need to temper expectations after their impressive performances in the Smart Asian Volleyball Confederation (AVC) Beach Tour Nuvali Open.
“We’re still in the beginning of the process,” Kiodai said. “It was great, the first experience this year in competition. We’ve been training for two months and a half, we have new teams, different from last year and we have to start from the bottom.”
“I’m happy for the teams because we showed that we can,” he said. “We lacked experience in competition but we played some good matches.”
The players seem to be all in on the “process.”
Previous University Athletic Association of the Philippines rivals and now partners Rancel Varga and James Buytrago, the towering pair of Ran Abdilla and AJ Pareja, Air Force spikers Kly Orillaneda and Gen Eslapor, and even Alexa Polidario and Jenny Gaviola had their time to shine on the show court of the world-class Nuvali Sand Courts by Ayala Land in the City of Santa Rosa.
They displayed great skill and determination, but the inexperience was evident and unfortunately, none made it to the medal rounds.
The wide grins that accompanied the wins in the preliminaries were replaced by apologetic smiles, their shoulders sagged as they looked at their coaches in the spectator stands.
Kiodai said he was never disappointed.
“Losing teaches you more than the wins. We improve the level,” Kiodai said.
“We have to keep our feet on the ground, we know our level. We are in the process, there’s a process, we are just starting and here we had the bonus of playing against teams of higher levels.”
Kiodai added that expecting a big jump in quality after a week of international play isn’t fair.
“We will do our best. If we get better results than these, that’s great,” Kiodai said.
Varga and Buytrago admitted they had lapses and vowed to do better as they gear up for the Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour-Futures from April 11 to 14 also in Nuvali.
“There’s some disappointment for sure…we could have done better,” said the 24-year-old Varga, a two-time UAAP MVP while playing for University of Santo Tomas. “But we’re not discouraged. In fact we’re more confident.”
Buytrago and Varga swept their Indonesian rivals in the opener before a three-set loss to a Japanese pair. They bowed out of at the Round of 16 stage with a straight-sets loss to another Indonesian squad.
“Like I said, one set at a time, one match at a time. It’s a new tournament and we will play armed with the experience from the AVC,” said Buytrago, a 25-year-old Cambodia Southeast Asian Games bronze medalist and former National University star.
The eldest but one of the most recent additions to the squad, 35-year-old Pareja gives the team an instant boost with his 6-foot-4 frame and the wingspan of a light aircraft, his monster blocks always drawing huge cheers from the crowd.
But admittedly he has a lot to work on, and mainly credited the 6-foot-2 Abdilla for their fine performances.
“Overall, I’m really, really happy with the performance of my partner, he was a big assist to me,” Pareja said.
Pareja and Abdilla came up with a thrilling straight-sets win over an Australian pair in the opener before getting edged out by a Japanes team in the second preliminary match and an Iranian pair in the Round of 16.
“We hope to bring everything we’ve learned from here. No way to go but up.”
Eslapor and Orillaneda, Air Force personnel stationed hundreds of kilometers apart, are putting their trust in the coaches.
“We still have a lot of things to work on, individually and as a team, but we believe in the program, the system. We will develop the partnership,” said the Manila-based Eslapor.
“We learned a lot this week and we will apply them in future tournaments.”
Orillaneda, stationed in Davao and was able to train with Eslapor for the Nuvali Open for only three weeks, is pleased to come up with a solid performance despite the odds.
They swept past their Singaporean rivals in the first match before bowing to teams from Kazakhstan, then Australia in the Round of 16.
“There are things that we need to focus on and improve, but overall this week was a good one,” Orillaneda said.
“I’m able to adjust, and same with her. We had no expectations and like coach Kiodai said we had nothing to lose,” she added.
Image credits: Nonie Reyes