This appears in the February 23, 2015 edition of the Business Mirror.
Thoughts on
the Ateneo Lady Eagles’ elimination round sweep
by rick olivares
Who would have thought it was possible? Did anyone ever think it
was possible? Even last year’s championship is still like a dream.
Nevertheless, there are still some quarters that think that Ateneo
peaked at the right time during the later stages of the Season 76 campaign that
saw the Lady Eagles take down Adamson in the Final Four before rendering
National University’s twice to beat advantage moot. In the Finals, there was
the difficult task of taking down four-peat seeking La Salle that had the
thrice to beat advantage. It is those same quarters that felt that the long
rest between the elimination round sweep and the finals dulled the Lady
Spikers’ edge. They also conveniently forget the previous season where they
were in the same scenario of an elimination round sweep and its three-game
advantage. Yet they won in the Season 75 finals.
So the first meeting between the Lady Eagles and the Lady Spikers
at the tail end of the first round had added meaning. Fluke win the previous
year or not? Never mind if Ateneo played back-to-back days, first against UE,
and then against La Salle.
While they didn’t look sharp against the Lady Spikers owing to lack
of recovery time they mustered enough game to take the match in five sets. What
was even more amazing with that was partida na ang La Salle because of the UE
match the day before.
Nevertheless, the second round meeting was just as huge. For La
Salle, it was to prevent a sweep, something they have done twice, and to play
Ateneo for the number one seed. For Ateneo, it was to complete an unprecedented
sweep.
And as much as the women take center stage in a match like this,
the sideline matching of wits between Anusorn Bundit and Ramil De Jesus is just
as interesting. De Jesus is the standard for excellence and his teams have won
a lot. You can say that they have good recruits hence a really good program.
But recruiting is part of the program and the coaching. Plus, if you go back to
the first round meeting, he brought in Christine Soyud and Mary Joy Baron, as
surprise packages for his squad. For this match, he unveiled Carol Cerveza in
the match up and even used Desiree Cheng late in the game as the setter. And it
worked too!
Over to the opposite side of the court, don’t mistake Bundit’s “happy
happy” approach to the game as being simple or even aloof. He does a lot of his
work during practice where he is even harder than Roger Gorayeb. However, come
game time, he opts to be – in his own words – “like a father.” Reminders here
and there and lots of encouragement.
There’s also the sub-plot of the Thai and his Filipino opposite
having played against each other in the national team.
The Lady Eagles showed a lot of uncommon emotion in the
first set. Maybe it’s La Salle and the high stakes involved. Maybe it’s
because Michelle Morente was on the floor and she is the most ebullient of the
Lady Eagles in their celebration while the others prefer more subdued smiles, hugs
and low fives. They looked to blow out La Salle early on but the errors piled
up while Ara Galang got untracked after getting gob smacked at the net early.
There are several things you can glean from their approach to that
first set win, 25-20, and in fact, the entire game:
-
They aren’t afraid of La
Salle
-
If they are able to minimize
their unforced errors they can end sets in a hurry.
-
Their confidence is really
really high.
In fact it was so high I thought that the boisterous celebrations
and high energy attack was because of gigil and Morente’s displays of emotion.
And that when that emotion was tempered would their play drop?
It did drop and so did their offense. At one point, Jia Morado set
up Alyssa Valdez for about six consecutive attacks only to get blocked or to
hit one out each time.
In spite of this, you have to forgive Alyssa because of what she
does and what she brings. Come on, it’s like having Kobe Bryant or LeBron James
on your team. Yes, you occasionally give the rock to Swaggy P or Wesley Johnson
but you want Black Mamba to have that ball especially during crunch time. Ditto
with James. Now when you have an Alyssa Valdez in your lineup you give it to
probably the most devastating weapon there is in Philippine women’s volleyball.
Prior to the La Salle match, I asked Morado what it was like to
play alongside Alyssa Valdez and she said she has those fan moments even while
on the court. Sometimes she can’t believe she’s setting up the Captain for
those booming and thunderous spikes of hers.
However, in that second set, Air Valdez was grounded as La Salle
evened up the game, 25-21.
But the Lady Eagles came back with strong play behind Bea De Leon,
Amy Ahomiro, and Jhoanna Maraguinot (with some heads up setting and drop shots
by Morado) to storm back ahead, 25-23, in the third set.
The return of De Leon from an injury that kept her out of the last few matches is huge because she plugs that hole in the
middle and is able to provide some scoring sock along with Ahomiro. If you saw
her during the V-League, she was getting her feet wet in the seniors level. She
looked like she had potential but seemed a year or two away from even realizing
that. Lo and behold, come UAAP-time, she was awesome. The team never had that
force in the middle before and that adds a huge dimension to Ateneo’s attack
making them even better than last year’s squad. As for Ahomiro, last year Kiwi
showed her stuff but this year she is hitting the ball better. I thought she
was getting her timing and finding that shot but this year, there’s much more
force in her wallops.
Plus, there’s Maraguinot.
In Season 76, there was Morente and Kim Gequillana. Both are still
there although the latter rarely gets playing time. Into that breach stepped
Maraguinot who waited two years before she could play (she had to sit due to
grades). I am glad she stayed the course because sitting out two years isn’t
easy. While I think Morente is better defensively, I think Maraguinot has
better offensive skills (of course, I could be wrong here but it is just my
assumption having watched all their matches this season).
One might notice that the Lady Eagles commit a lot of errors this
year as opposed to last season. I am told that it is because their serves are
being tweaked. Occasionally, I also notice their concentration waver a bit.
Luckily for them, they have been able to dig back and fashion out some huge
five set wins or even come back from huge deficits (see the matches against La
Salle in the first round and the third set against UE in the second round).
They could have put La Salle away in the fourth set but the Lady
Spikers with all their talent, championship experience, and firepower, came
right back to level the count at 24-all. Maraguinot with an excellent set by
Morado, rattled off the winning points to complete the sweep. She finished with
10 points behind De Leon’s 11 and Valdez’ match-leading 29. The Lady Spikers’
Ara Galang was the only one who finished in double figures with 20 points.
They took some pretty close sets against La Salle; no mean feat
against a strong and talented rival. It should further boost their confidence.
With the sweep, there’s the concern of a lay-off and it could be
ripe for La Salle to return the favor. So how did the Lady Eagles celebrate
their elimination round sweep – why they went back to work the following day as
Bundit would have none of that rest.
In the meantime, we turn our attention to the battle for fourth and
the final four.
