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Unprecedented and Undisputed: How Ateneo overcame La Salle’s thrice-to-beat edge

The Ateneo postseason began as a simple quest to get as far as it could with the line-up it had. It ended win its first ever UAAP volleyball title.

Not very many could have predicted at the start of the season that the Lady Eagles would be at the pinnacle of the sport. In fact, the odds of Ateneo winning the championship was 4-1. On a sidebar, the odds of both the women’s and men’s team making it to the Finals before the season began was 10-1. If someone was working on this wager and you happened to buy it, you’d be very rich right now.

The favorite was definitely De La Salle University (DLSU), the three-time defending queens of UAAP volleyball. The Lady Spikers—despite the departure of stalwarts Melissa Gohing, Wensh Tiu and Season 75 Finals MVP Michele Gumabao—still had co-MVPs Abigail Maraño and Ara Galang along with pagoda Mika Reyes and setting ace Kim Fajardo. Many predicted that it would be a DLSU-National University (NU) clash for the title.

I mean, why not right?

The Lady Bulldogs’ biggest blow to their vaunted roster were the graduations of superstar libero Jen Reyes and the very long and powerful Kai Nepomuceno, but they were parading highly-touted freshman Jaja Santiago who at 6’5” became the tallest player on record in the league.

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Many aficionados even gave Adamson University a bigger chance of at least making it to the Finals over Ateneo as they anticipated a monster season from wunderkind Sheila “Bangnita” Pineda and a resurgent Amanda Villanueva, and they were right.

A few considered Ateneo’s Season 76 line-up as a true title contender as the “Fab Five” featuring Ailysse Nacachi, Jem Ferrer, Dzi Gervacio, Fille Cainglet and Gretchen Ho had all run out of eligibility. Sure, the Lady Eagles still had scoring champion Alyssa Valdez, hard-working libero Den-Den Lazaro and rapidly developing Amy Ahomiro, but with a complement of role-players and a phalanx of rookies looked to be a team that could make some noise in Season 77, and not now. They were deemed as rebuilding. They were not on the radar for a title.

64 season matches later, they not only shock DLSU but the whole Philippines.

So how did they get it done? How did this unlikely collection of talent achieve what their predecessors failed to attain? Was it luck? Was it hard work? Or was it something else altogether?

Ateneo had lost four matches during the preliminary round: twice against NU and twice against La Salle. Along the way, their “rebuilding” campaign took a massive hit when freshman quicker Ana Gopico went down with an MCL tear and was lost for the rest of the year. There was also a spell when celebrated mentor Anusorn “Tai” Bundit had to go back to Thailand and the team struggled, but still found ways to hang in there. By running the course, they were able to fend off the Lady Falcons and snare the third seed late in the prelims. The OBF faithful began hoping that the Lady Spikers would lose a match to avoid the harrowing climb of a stepladder series.

La Salle didn’t cooperate. They swept the prelims and catapulted straight to the Finale with a thrice-to-beat advantage; virtually putting one hand on its fourth consecutive championship.

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The stepladder meant that the Lady Eagles now had to fight for their lives three times just to advance to the Finals.

Their first assignment was Adamson. They were favored. They prevailed. One down, two to go.

Waiting next was against one of the two squads they had not defeated all season: NU.

By this time the battlecry “Heart Strong” already began trending and the OBF faithful used this simple philosophy of Coach Tai as the backbone of their morale boost. Later on, a new phrase began gaining momentum: “Play Happy”, and then another: “Go Hard or Go Home”. These three simple concepts fueled the Lady Eagles and they overcame the tremendous height and experience advantage of the Lady Bulldogs to beat them twice and achieve what was considered then highly improbable: advance to the Finals.

They had just survived three do-or-die matches. Now they have to beat the defending champions thrice and avoid being beaten twice in the process. This was a taller order as they had not even won a single set against La Salle all season long and had not beaten the Lady Spikers in about two years.

On paper, their line-up had two distinct advantages: Valdez (the new league MVP and back-to-back scoring queen) and Lazaro—easily head and shoulders above Gohing’s successors. The opposite hitter position was a proverbial coinflip between two freshmen and—although many consider it to be closer than advertised—the league’s Best Setter, Fajardo, belonged to the Lady Spikers, although Ateneo rookie playmaker Jia Morado had had a solid season. The Maraño-Reyes tandem up front was touted as more superior and more experienced than the three-headed Ahomiro-Aerieal Patnongon-Marge Tejada quickers-combo of the Lady Eagles. Ateneo doesn’t have a deep bench. The starters have to carry the load. La Salle had everything going for them—especially that thrice-to-beat edge.

But the great Ron Jacobs once quipped: “Games aren’t played on paper.”

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With a combination of grit and determination, the Lady Eagles fashioned out a queen-sized upset in Game 1 as La Salle struggled for form after being idle for eighteen days waiting for its opponent; a distinct drawback of the stepladder system. The Lady Spikers railroaded Ateneo in Game 2, but not without a spirited fight from the Katipuneras. Game 3 was a five-set classic that almost looked like Game 1 of the Season 74 Finals but with a different result: Ateneo found the reserves to close out the Lady Spikers in the fifth set.

Game 4 was just a show of how self-belief surmounts anything, even the seemingly improbable. It was not impossible for Ateneo to win the title, it was just highly-improbable. They proved that improbable was nothing.

Valdez was deservedly feted with the Finals MVP plum as the Lady Eagles finally enter the annals of Philippine collegiate volleyball as a champion.

Now, here are some of the factors I feel that made the difference for the Lady Eagles’ historic climb to the summit:

Coach Tai—his endless motivation and positive approach to coaching had the Lady Eagles believing that being champions was attainable and could get it done with a smile. His move to bring Ahomiro to the center position, move rookie Michelle Morente (an iconic open-spiker in high-school) to the utility spot and use the taller Patnongon over Tejada as the starter were the initial ingredients to the team’s success. The constant shifting in spiking positions between Valdez, Morente and Ella de Jesus also confused the opposing net defenses. The energy he displayed on the sidelines infected the players on the court and having the ladies meditate on the bench together prior to the matches helped them stay focused and remain oblivious to any external forces that made their daunting task even more difficult. Coach Tai got them believing in his philosophy and now they are champions, against all odds.

Jia Morado—there was a clamor for the former Collegio de San Agustin star to be included for consideration for Finals MVP, and why not? The 17-year-old former open-spiker made many forget that she was a mere teenager as she shone brightly in the biggest stage of her young career. She lost to Fajardo in the race for Best Setter by a mere one tenth of a point, but displayed maturity beyond her years in getting errant receptions to her targets and allowed the spikers easy shots. There are a few who have been telling me that Morado’s setting style—especially in the Finals—was akin to (former Cagayan Valley import) Phomla Soraya’s and that Coach Tai taught her the Thai way of orchestrating. I would not be surprised if this were true. I saw a number of impeccable “low-fast” sets from the youngster throughout the season and she also had her fair share of block points and deflections as she is also quite tall for her position. The scary part about her physique is that I’m told she’s still growing, and if that’s true—and I said this to some Philippine Volleyball Federation (PVF) officials recently—she should be mentioned in the same breath as Rhea Dimaculangan, Rubie de Leon and Tina Salak in about a year. She’s already being hailed in some sectors as the Philippine version of Soraya, so why not?

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Amy Ahomiro—she rode the bench during the “Fab Five” era and would only get heavy minutes against the lower-tiered teams to rest the veterans. This year, the New Zealand native became a steady contributor, especially after being moved to middle-hitter. “Kiwi” has always had that defensive acumen. However, despite being a just shade under six feet tall, was apparently miscast at the utility spot—perhaps because she’s a lefty. Ahomiro instantly became a force at the net and also is unfazed by having the responsibility of taking a crucial shot while the more celebrated Ateneo spikers were used as decoys. She will be the last to smile after a point. She was business-like and serious and probably the last one to subscribe to the “Play Happy” concept, but she had the blinkers on the whole season and her investment all these years being someone’s backup finally paid off in a big way for the Lady Eagles. With all due respect to Patnongon and Tejada (and probably even Gopico), I believe if Ahomiro wasn’t part of the starting line-up as a quicker, they would not have won the championship.

Den-Den Lazaro—I campaigned for her to be named Finals MVP if Ateneo won, because we all know the Lady Eagles would not come anywhere close to contention if not for the tremendous showing of this all-world libero. Lazaro had achieved this year what only Adamson’s Lizlee Ann Gata and NU’s Jen Reyes has ever accomplished: win both the Best Digger and Best Receiver accolades. I consider Gata and Reyes among the best in the position ever. When I did my piece on who the best floor patrollers were in the country last year, Den-Den was in sixth place. If I were to do that again now, she’d be contending for the top spot. It was insane how she consistently contained the supposed bombs from La Salle’s hard attacks, especially from Galang. Before that, she was a big reason for successfully limiting NU’s Myla Pablo to a combined eleven points in their two meetings in the postseason, and while Pineda still got her numbers in the Adamson match, Lazaro was instrumental in keeping Villanueva, Mayette Zapanata and Mylene Paat from churning out their usual numbers. During Game 4, people already forgot that she was still sort of hobbling from the severe ankle sprain she sustained in the first set of Game 2. She’s a new breed of superhero that must be discovered by Stan Lee. He should modify a baseball pitching machine to fire volleyballs at her and see how many can hit the ground. I wrote about it once: Ateneo cannot beat La Salle if Lazaro misses time. She didn’t. They won.

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Michelle Morente/Ella de Jesus/Aerieal Patnongon/Marge Tejada—they played their roles to the hilt and stepped up when they needed to. De Jesus has really emerged well after being Cainglet’s backup and has shown that she is not bashful about taking the big shots—and celebrating after the fact. Morente has blended well into not only her position, but Coach Tai’s demands of her. Many forget Morente is also a teenager who still has four more years left as a Lady Eagle. Patnongon’s development is now intimidating and her leaner frame has allowed her to be faster and more coercive up front. She still has one more year to continue her new persona as the team's defensive terrorizer. With much controversy surrounding Tejada’s stint this year, she proved to be a vital cog as the only bench entity in the Finals. She has the experience and the talent to get the job done. She’s learned how she can help this new cast of characters achieve greatness.

The OBF faithful—I did not believe Ateneo had the correct roster for a title run, but you guys did. The fans of Ateneo became the squad’s invisible player and by collectively believing that no disadvantage is insurmountable, the OBF faithful willed the team to be successful. There is no stat on that and there will never be one, but when social media began getting filled with hashtags like #HeartStrong, #PlayHappy and #OBFNothingIsImpossible, that force became a major living catalyist in the series. One fan told me before Game 4, “There are only two ways we can beat La Salle: if God intervenes, or our spirit does.” I wish that spirit would help me on EDSA during quitting time.

However, let’s not forget the amazing season of the Lady Spikers.

They worked very hard all season long. Maraño got my vote for MVP because of the way she sacrificed her offense to make the team better. Galang would have been Finals MVP as she just found a way to dig deep and came very close to giving her captain the best graduation gift in Game 3’s fifth set when they had 15-14 lead after her two detonations. Reyes’ development has jumped a few notches this season and I predict she will next season’s Best Blocker—or one of the Best Quicker awardees, should the league decide to adapt FIVB’s version of feting individuals. Fajardo will come back stronger and with more purpose and I won’t be surprised if she splits time harmoniously with Mika Esperanza for La Salle’s setting duties in Season 77. Cyd Demcillo, Desiree Cheng and the reserves will learn from this and rise above this heartbreak.

I honestly predict another Ateneo-La Salle showdown for the women’s volleyball title in Season 77. I don’t think I’m alone in this notion.

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Congratulations again to the Lady Eagles. What they achieved was unprecedented and they are now the undisputed volleyball queens of the UAAP for the first time ever. Will they do it again in Season 77? Let’s see what the Lady Spikers have to say about that.

What a season! Volleyball has truly gone through the roof. And it’s because of fans like yourself.

See you in a few days at the opener of the eleventh season of the Shakey’s V-League. I’ll be there broadcasting the games anew.

Will you be there as well?

Follow Noel Zarate on Twitter (@NoelZarate) and email sportztackle@yahoo.com