Brazilian coach Jorge Edson Souza de Brito admitted that letting go of the National University (NU) players was hard.

In a radio interview Saturday, the 1992 Barcelona Olympics coach said he's lucky to have the core of the Lady Bulldogs' team which fits the program's long-term goal of developing the players.

He also said he had good intentions of placing the national team in the Premier Volleyball League (PVL) Invitational Conference semifinals as that would have been a great chance to experiment with the line-up.

"That was a great chance. This was the luckiest team that I had because we were supposed to play at least three competitions," Souza de Brito said.

"I'm not looking to be the best team in the PVL. I want to play all the girls in different situations and give them exposure. But they didn't ask me about that and just said they aren't allowed to play. At the end of the day, I think they don't trust the program."

The national team was supposed to replace a Covid-struck Kobe Shinwa Women's University in the PVL Invitational semifinals facing four local teams and KingWhale Taipei of Chinese Taipei.

But with the Lady Bulldogs begging off from participating due to minor injuries, the Philippine National Volleyball Federation expelled them from the roster and will have the top-performing local club in the PVL compete instead in the Asian Volleyball Confederation Cup for Women this 21 to 29 August.

Souza de Brito said NU should've declined the offer to play for the national team if it felt that the players are already hobbled by injuries.

"If you think you can't lend the players, just do what every institution does: Don't let them come. If you come to the national team, you have to be proud to be there," Souza de Brito said.