BLEACHERS BREW EST. MAY 2006

Someone asked me how my blog and newspaper column came to be titled "Bleachers Brew". It's like this, it's an amalgam of sorts of two things: The bleachers area in the stadium/arena where I used to sit when I would watch baseball, football, and basketball games and Miles Davis' great jazz album Bitches Brew. That's how it got culled together. I originally planned on calling it "The View from the Big Chair" that is a nod to Tears For Fear's second album, Songs from the Big Chair. So there.

Wednesday, April 27, 2016

The Ateneo Lady Eagles serve up a timeless lesson about heart


This appears on philstar.com

The Ateneo Lady Eagles serve up a timeless lesson about heart
by rick olivares pic by arvin lim

You’ve heard how kids say the darndest things. Well, how about a group of teenage girls and young adults teaching us some of the most incredible things. You know… like believing, not giving up, and snatching victory from the jaws of defeat in a game for the ages. 

You can be forgiven for thinking that the Ateneo Lady Eagles were dead in the water after they fell behind two sets to none and La Salle ready to wrap this up for their ninth UAAP Women’s Volleyball championship. After all they coughed up a huge three-point lead late in the second set and La Salle looked imperious in the early goings of the third set.

Yet come back they did. They reached deep into that reservoir of hope they call “Heartstrong” for a massive comeback win in five sets that not only evened the series at a match apiece but could have possibly reversed the tide against a very good and frightening volleyball machine. 

However this series ends, these Lady Eagles will have served up another lesson in that creed that all who went to the Ateneo hold dear — giving it that One Big Fight. Game One lacked it but they sure made up for it in this match.

As for this Lady Eagles squad of Anusorn Bundit… they seem to make a knack out of comebacks. They pretty much wrote the book on that in that daydream miracle of a Season 76. This season, where they are, their record aside, is incredible considering who they’ve lost by the wayside.

They were supposed to have Michelle Morente, Kat Tolentino, and Maddie Madayag. 

Mich was knocked out because of academics. Kat was lost during the V-League to a knee injury. Maddie… well, you all know what happened to her. During the aforementioned V-League, they had Gizelle Tan playing setter while Ella De Jesus plugged the huge hole left behind by libero par excellence, Denden Lazaro. That role was supposed to go to heir apparent Pam Dungo. Except she showed up before the season way out of shape. Now Gizelle, without even a pre-season to aptly learn the ropes on a position she’s not even the best at, is holding her own. 

So how’s that for a bad hand? In spite of that look at where they are. 

And speaking of bad hands, one game and two sets down… Ara Galang was pounding away, Mika Reyes was staring everyone down, Kim Fajardo was conducting a symphony of destruction, Kim Dy was finding holes in the Ateneo wall… They were doing everything right and scoring on incredible shots. In short, it was bleak. 

But there was that sliver of hope.

I said this during the first game of the Season 76 Finals and I mentioned it again during the second round match this Season 78 — La Salle had a chance to bury the Lady Eagles but they didn’t. 

This Game Two, Ateneo finished that first set strong. The Lady Eagles should have won the second set but hitting errors hurt them. But they were slowly finding their groove, like a diesel engine. And then they turned the heat on La Salle.

In an incandescent performance, Alyssa Valdez, on the day she was crowned the league’s Most Valuable Player for the third straight year, carried her team in true Jordanesque fashion -- doing something, anything, and everything. She played defense, served some mean ones, killed that ball dead, scored on those incredible backrow attacks, and perhaps more importantly, pulled her teammates together during huddles. That is why she has this massive following and is the game’s face. She brings it like no one else. Those 34 points? I will paraphrase former Utah Jazz head coach Jerry Sloan who after his team was skewered by Michael Jordan’s Chicago Bulls 96-54 in Game 3 of the 1998 NBA Finals, “I thought she scored 134 points.”

Sometimes, newly crowned MVPs play bad on coronation day. No such luck for La Salle. Valdez was Jordanesque.

Following her lead, Jia Morado, injury and all, battled the game’s best in Kim Fajardo. In spite of her youth, you know she’s special. And she finished with 70 excellent sets.

And the rest of the team like Jhoana Maraguinot, Bea De Leon, Amy Ahomiro, and Kim Gequillana did their part chipping in here and there. Even Therese Gaston made good in her cameo appearance. 

Now, the Ateneo Lady Eagles are in a good position to win it for a third straight year.

Once more, however this championship series ends, the Ateneo Lady Eagles should give us pause to be thankful for their incredible efforts that have resulted in great victories, historic championships, and stories we will revisit forever in our lifetime and maybe the next. They’ve brought pride and restored it some. Plus, they’ve fought that One Big Fight.

And that is all we ever ask of them.


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Additional reading: Alyssa Valdez & Marck Espejo are Season 78 MVPs.

18 comments:

  1. My post in my fb a while ago prior to the game: Will alyssa valdez' career come full circle? Rookie yr: admu steals game 1 only to be beaten by dlsu two straight games (if memory serves me right). Sophomore year: dlsu sweeps admu. Junior yr: she did the improbable and beat dlsu 3-1 via a cinderella finish to get her and ale's 1st crown. 4th yr: we sweep dlsu. Final yr: dlsu takes game one. Can alyssa valdez will her team to two victories to a championship and 3peat?

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  2. Your predictions were generally spot on during this volleyball season (Tan getting better, Kim contributing eventually, etc), which is why I was worried your prediction, that this series ending in two games, will be true.

    I'm glad that wasn't true in this case.

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  3. I think the floor of The Arena must be distorted by now by the strength Valdez hit the volleyball...

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  4. The x-factors are the Gastons. In one of their elims, the younger one, all she did was celebrate for points which she didn't make, and that got La Salle LS reeling. This game, the elder scored the solitary point for a set, and came in on the 4th. No sooner than her checking-in, the 2 attackers of the opposing team committed back to back errors. Pedigree and lineage are the by-words which is more than what I can say for the other team which has all outsiders...

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    1. Hope they can utilize Mae Tajima. She's very tall but not as intimidating as Jaja or Majoy. Really hoping she can be trained to be a force for the ALEs now that Aly and Kiwi are exiting. They could use another tower to complement Bea and Maddie

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    2. Mae Tajima is also graduating already. :)

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  5. Rick....I enjoyed reading your write-up last night on Game 2. This comeback was one of epic proportions, just a little below overhauling a 3x to beat advantage which the Lady Eagles did during their Cinderella run in Season '76, coupled with negating DLSU's Championship Point at 15-14 in Game 3 of that match-up to steal the set and set the stage for history-making via a 3-0 sweep in Game 4. Just a little below,I reiterate, but ever so sweet as the sweetest spoonfull of honey just the same. I was hoping you could post the Stat Sheet of Game 2, though, just as you have done so in the past with other games...GG

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  6. Masasabi ko lang, Jia Morado was superb in this game, knowing when to give the ball to Aly, reading the defense and knowing who's hot and trusting her team mate like Gaston, gamblng that last point to Gaston probably made lasalle think why she gave it to her and so the cmplete comeback...

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  7. This is one great article. Hopefully the ALEs's read this and get inspired to seal their #3Peat on Saturday. They have been diesel-like in games 1 and 2. Game 3 is their chance to turn the tables and do full throttle on DLSU. We know they have very good physical and mental conditioning that's why they were able to outlast DLSU but it would really be sweet if they can do a sweep on Saturday. They just have to be wary of injuries coming into game 3. We know how intense their practices can be and just praying they'll be tip top for the do-or-die

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    1. Tama po, dapat full throttle na sila...killer instinct should be in full effect na in every palo nila sa bola...

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    2. Onga eh. Madali din naman maubusan ng gas ang kalaban pero sana maging aggressive din ang ALEs at masustain nila yun. kasi lagi silang nauunang mag-score then pag humabol si DLSU, nawawala na momentum nila. Si Jia dapat din ibahin ang strategy pag nakikita na nyang nach-chek na si Baldo ng triple block ng dlsu. Nakakasira din un ng game. May iba pa naman attacker na pwede bigyan like jho and kim. lumalakas loob ng dlsu pag nab-block nila si Baldo

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  9. Another Lesson: it isnt over until the its really over. Some greenies mocked prematurely...

    They made some people really go positively, even spiritually ballistic...

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  10. Everytime Ateneo scores, Aly man yan or anyone from the team it's like the're saying We scored kasama na fans, Ateneo community and lahat ng sumusuporta sa kanila and that's genuine celebration unlike their opponent kapag naka-score ang reaction nia "I" scored against you and celebrate alone, kasama man ang team sa celebration and lahat sila nag-celebrate kasi naka-iskor sila against a certain person

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  11. This is no longer between the Green and the Blue!

    It is personal! It is about LOVE!!!

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  12. http://m.spin.ph/volleyball/news/tony-koyfman-ateneo-blue-eagles-uaap-eligible-season-79

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