By Anthony Divinagracia of uaapsports.com
photo by Dan Avila
It was the night when the UAAP’s best shared the limelight – at least on stage.
But beyond the dimly lit podium that revered Season 72′s outstanding athletes, young actor and swimming sensation Ernest Lorenzo “Enchong” Dee merited extra – and “unexpected” – attention from spectators and fellow awardees that mobbed him at the sidelines of the UAAP Awards Night on Thursday last week at the FEU Auditorium.
For the second straight year, the valiant efforts of the different sports teams of DLSU resulted in a runner-up finish in the UAAP General Championship. And it seems that for the umpteenth time, the España Armada showed overall consistency in all sports disciplines in this annual athletic meet to romp off with the overall title. The perennial supremacy of the UST contingent has many wondering whether it’s the large student population or just excellent recruitment and training. Whatever it is, UST remains to be the yardstick of a great school athletic program.
This pic says it all! The Lady Spikers have already put this recently concluded season behind them and will look forward to a more fruitful campaign next year. This was taken during their thanksgiving dinner hours after last Saturday’s game.
The team will remain intact for next season as most of the seniors still have one year of eligibility left. This of course is assuming that they decide to return for another tour of duty. The future looks bright for our Lady Spikers and even though they were not able to defend the crown this year, they still gave us one helluva performance. And for that we thank you Ladies.
Enjoy this clip. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fz8c6FXyRys
The Lady Spikers failed to repeat as champions as they fell to a resurgent UST in 4 sets, 18-25, 14-25, 25-16, 15-25. Led by skipper Stephanie Mercado, the team put up a valiant stand but fell prey to the taller and more experienced UST team.
La Salle took the first point of the match, but that was the only time they would taste the lead in the opening set. Although the Lady Spikers managed to limit their errors to 7, the same number as UST, poor reception resulted in less points on the attacks, 5 to UST’s 14. Our team’s spikes were either partially blocked or easily retrieved. Blocking was not as effective at the start, allowing UST to build their momentum and confidence as their attacks penetrated our net defenses. Trailing at 10-12, UST scored on 3 spikes and an error by Gohing to lead at the 2nd technical timeout. The Lady Spikers pulled to within 16-19 before UST went to their powerful hitters to take the first set.
The 2nd set started off on a positive note, with the team taking the lead up to the first technical timout at 8-7. However, unforced errors from our service as well as a couple of errant spikes allowed UST to take the lead, 8-11 forcing Coach Ramil to call for time and advise the players to slow things down. He also fielded Cerveza, Yeung, Gumabao, and Diego in an effort to break the lethargic play of our team, to no avail. Uncertainty and a curious loss of concentration told on the team, as they yielded the second set 14-25. In this set, UST exploited a small weakness whenever our setter Martinez was in the frontline as they shifted the ball to her side and used their height advantage to power their shots over her. With momentum on their side, UST looked to sweep the Lady Spikers.
The Lady Spikers huddle out in this brief lull. Whatever they are talking about, it sure got Kay Martinez all fired-up and raring to go. The winning comment/imaginary conversation will win an 8×10 hard copy photo of our Women’s Volleyball team plus other freebies.
Winners of last week’s Substitution
Winner, raymond paez:
PERFECT 10 for your PERFECT PERFORMANCE
2nd Place, reree:
Clarisse: Uy! pinapatanong ni manong commentator kung ano daw number mo..
Abi: ah! yun ba? eto o number 10..
Clarisse: Number daw sa phone..
Abi: Takpan mo nlng muka ko para di nya ako makita…
3rd Place, Bien Marie Silva:
clarisse: excited na ko makita sa loob ang crush ko……..
abi: sino wala na man dyang lalaki.
Clarisse: eh di si ref…….!!!
I thought our floor defense was better than it was against UST in that second round loss. However, it was in the blocking where our team was not so consistent. Although we did have our share of offensive blocks (against Santiago whose quick plays were blocked a number of times, Banaticla who was blocked on successive plays), the defensive wall put up by our net blockers was not as solid due to the variety of sets employed by UST. Recognizing that our net defenders are very effective in close quarters, Dimaculangan would set up her spikers a foot or two away from the net, and this gave them better angles to target gaps or avoid our blockers.
Carmel Garbin showed that she is a worthy successor to Kaye when Kaye plays our her eligibility, but her lack of match play showed. Yup, Joanne was not able to score too much on blocks. The players will also have to improve communication and teamwork, particularly since UST likes to target the gap between the back line defenders, and the players sometimes pause or hesitate in retrieving the ball because a teammate is close by. This hesitancy cost us several points, particularly in the 4th set when we had a chance to rally at 19-21, and we dropped 2 consecutive points because of this type of error.
The Lady Spikers dropped game 1 of the best-of-three finals series against UST today in 4 sets – 26-24, 23-25, 16-25, and 21-25. The team lapsed into uncharacteristic errors against a tall and experienced UST team, and they now must take the second game on Saturday, February 27 if they want to retain the championship they won last year at the expense of FEU.
Setter Kaye Martinez was used sparingly because of a shoulder injury she suffered during the final 4 match against Adamson over the weekend, and this told on the fluidity of the Lady Spikers’ offense as backup setter Carmel Garbin wasn’t as precise in setting up our attackers. The variety in attack was also not as sharp, allowing the UST defense to set up their defense against our individual attackers.
Maybe it was the championship pressure, but the team lost two points when trailing at 19-21 in the 4th set because the ball dropped between two players, either of whom could have easily retrieved the ball. This kind of miscue occurred a few times during the match, robbing the team of the opportunity to score and giving UST some breathing room.
Rookie Clarisse Yeung is all smiles as she substitutes for fellow greenhorn Abigail Marano. The winning comment/imaginary conversation will win an 8×10 hard copy photo of our Women’s Volleyball team plus other freebies.
Winners of last week’s Straight Line
Winner, iya morada:
kaye: joane me iko-confess ako.
joane: anu yon ate? cge makikinig ako.
kaye: napilayan ako nun last play.
joane: awch. saan?
kaye: dito sa pinky oh. pero wag kang maingay baka ilabas ako ni coach, sayang exposure.
2nd Place, green caramel:
Attention, please fall in line according to your height!
3rd Place, ann:
Kaye: Guys nasukat ko na! kasinghaba ng pinky finger ko un patilya ni joanne
In their last elimination round match, the Lady Spikers absorbed its first loss of the season today as they fall to the UST Tigresses 25-23, 20-25, 28-26, 16-25, 12-15. Despite this setback, the team still remains on top of the standings and will have the twice-to-beat advantage in the semis.
Nice game, UST deserved the win because they were steadier in the endgame. Some uncertainty crept into the Lady Spikers’ game, and that resulted in their play being less sharp and aggressive as they were in the past. Not to take anything away from UST, but those last 2 service reception errors were definitely unforced errors, balls which our team should have fielded cleanly. And the serve continued to be a double edged sword, netting us some quick points but also giving some away, but what hurt was that they occurred in the 4th and 5th sets. Perhaps the team just wanted the win too much. That loss was a bump on the road to the championship.
In what could be a Season 72 championship preview, the Lady Spikers and the Tigresses will face off to cap the elimination round before an expected full-house crowd on Sunday.
Earlier on that day, the Green Spikers will try to formally cement its footing in the men’s semis as they clash with Ateneo. Both teams are tied at 7-6 and the winner will grab the 3rd seed in the Final Four.
Though both teams are already assured of the top 2 positions in the semis, the Lady Spikers and Tigresses are still expected to give it their all in this Valentine’s Day/Chinese New Year Showdown. The Lady Spikers are gunning for a rare elimination round sweep while the Tigresses are out to avenge their first round loss and of course stop La Salle in bringing out the brooms.
