ROGER GORAYEB and San Sebastian College used to dominate the ladies volleyball competition in the National Collegiate Athletic Association.
The Gorayeb coached Lady Stags are winners of 23 NCAA ladies volleyball titles, including six in a row from 2005 to 2011. They haven’t won since but with Grethcel Soltones running wild at the spiking end, after five fruitless years the Lady Stags are poised to return to the NCAA throne.
The Lady Stags formally advanced to the NCAA Final Four with a straight-set demolition of the University of Perpetual Help Altas last Wednesday. It is their seventh consecutive victory.
SSC is nearing a sweep of the elimination round. The team that sweeps automatically advances to the finals where they await their opponents from the three other teams which advance to the Final Four.
Soltones was her usual productive self with 18 spike points and one service ace. The Lady Stags dominated at the net with 38 points off spikes compared to just 18 by the Altas. But the Altas almost made up for their lack with 10 block points.
Soltones hasn’t won an NCAA title yet although she did win back-to-back Most Valuable Player awards the past two years in the NCAA. She gets a last and final chance to win the crown this year.
How far San Sebastian goes will depend on how the effervescent Soltones handles the pressure to succeed. Coach Gorayeb believes her young ward will live up to the challenge.
“Grethcel is okay. She is familiar with the pressure to win which has always been there. Being in the NCAA, the pressure has always been great. I told her we need to win the title this year. We have to use the pressure as something to motivate us to play better,” said Gorayeb.
In a surprisingly competitive year six teams are capable of advancing to the Final Four and winning the NCAA crown.
These six teams include San Sebastian, University of Perpetual Help, defending champion College of St. Benilde, Arellano University, Lyceum Lady Pirates and the San Beda Lady Red Spikers.
Soltones remains the heart and soul of the San Sebastian offense. But she has been less than stellar this year. She is actually just in second place behind CSB’s Jeannette Panage in her spike production. She will need to step up during the playoffs if the Lady Stags hope to win the NCAA title.
Gorayeb says he has done his part to put the Lady Stags in a position to win the NCAA title. It is now up to Soltones and her teammates to deliver and win that crown.