MANILA, Philippines – It's fair to say that University of Santo Tomas (UST) has not lived up to its lofty preseason billing so far in the UAAP Season 79 women's volleyball tournament, as the Tigresses only have one win in four games.

The Tigresses opened their season with a straight sets loss to Ateneo de Manila University, and followed it up with a four-set loss to De La Salle University before rebounding with a sweep of University of the East. They failed to build up on that win, however, losing in four to University of the Philippines (UP) on Sunday.

It has been disappointing for UST fans, who see the Tigresses' line-up and believe they have a team that can compete for a spot in the Final 4. EJ Laure and Cherry Rondina are bona fide stars, Ria Meneses is a former Best Blocker, and they have veteran Pam Lastimosa back to help plug the leadership hole that they lacked last year.

So far, however, things have yet to fall into place for the Tigresses.

"May result na 'yung pinaghihirapan namin, kaya lang, kulang pa," said UST coach Kungfu Reyes, after the Tigresses succumbed to the Lady Maroons, 22-25, 22-25, 21-29, 19-25, to drop to 1-3 in the tournament.

• READ: Lady Maroons tame Tigresses for 4-0 slate

Reyes noted that while the Lady Maroons played very well, they remained toe to toe with them until the latter part of the sets, at which point the Tigresses seemed to falter.

"Pagdating doon sa 20, umaayaw na kami, tumitigil," he observed. "Sumasabay naman kami, hanggang doon lang sa dulo."

"Kailangan naming tiyagain sa mga players namin," he added. "Hindi namin ito bibitawan."

Asked if it was time to push the panic button with his team languishing at the sixth spot, Reyes said: "Actually, hindi eh."

"Kasi, kayang ipanalo," he added. "If you look at the standings, sino ba 'yung mga tumalo (sa amin)?"

Indeed, all of UST's three losses have come against teams that made the Final 4 in Season 78. However, Reyes knows they cannot afford to keep dropping matches if they hope to snap UST's Final 4 drought, which has now spanned four seasons.

"Hindi kami pwede na ganoon lang. Kailangan mag-trabaho," he said.

This entails showing the kind of fighting spirit that they showed in the third set of their game against UP, when they saved match point after match point and got clutch hits from Laure en route to the hard-fought victory.

"Sabi ko nga sa kanila, noong hindi namin inayawan 'yung laro, nakuha namin 'yung third set. 'Yung first two sets at sa fourth, umayaw kami doon," Reyes said.

"Uunti-untiin na lang namin," he added. "Very competitive ang taon, nag-iimprove lahat, gumagaling. Hindi namin kailangan maghintay ng mahinang kalaban para manalo."

"It's a good thing na nag-improve kami, pero ang hinahanap namin doon ay panalo," Reyes emphasized. "Kailangan namin sumabay para manalo."

UST will try to get only its second victory of the season against winless Adamson University on Saturday.

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