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| Heart Strong | Credit: ABS-CBNNews.com |
I can still remember that scene. Alyssa was barely moving, while the rest of her teammates drew closer to her. They were trying their best to rally her.
For a moment then, it seemed that Ateneo was in a similar scenario - another Final Four exit. Sure, the Lady Eagles were able to score the first set – something they had a tough time accomplishing against this juggernaut NU squad who outscored them 6-1 on set wins in their elimination round meet-ups. After reaching the Finals for the past two years, it was actually expected that the Ateneo Lady Eagles would miss it this year.
Why? We are on a rebuilding year. The team lost more than half of its 2013 starting lineup to attrition as Fille Cainglet, Dzi Gervacio, Gretchen Ho and Jem Ferrer graduated recently. It was further a transition year as the team also changed its coach from long-time mentor Roger Gorayeb to foreign coach Tai Bundit.
I have been following this team for around half a decade already and I must admit that I thought we barely stood a chance early in the season. I remember watching that first match. It was against NU where the Lady Bulldogs (sporting the twin tower Santiago sisters) trampled on the Lady Eagles by sweeping them. It was not a good sight but it was also understandable that Ateneo was going to have a hard time as the rookies were still adjusting to the pressure.
The Lady Eagles were comparable to their men’s basketball counterparts then with the latter getting a new coach and a departure of key players. The only difference was, the men’s basketball team had the championship experience (having won five championships in a row) while the ladies’ volleyball team never won it all. With the men’s basketball team missing the Final Four last year, I was prepared that the 2013-14 batch of women’s volleyball team to miss it out too. After all, they looked hapless against NU on that first match of the season.
Have you watched the latest “How I Met Your Mother” episode? The storyline revolved around the seemingly lifeless Barney Stinson who was so drunk at the day of his wedding. His friends were trying their best to revive him. They had a photoshoot in less than an hour’s time and Barney was still fast asleep. The ladies (Robin and Lily) stayed with him and tried a variety of methods to get him up to his feet. They had to dip Barney’s face in a bucket filled with ice water. Robin thought of fake alarming news in the hopes of waking Barney up (of which, I laughed hard when she said Barney’s shoes do not match his belt). They all cared for him, but just like the Ateneo Lady Eagles’ potential of winning a championship early this season, Barney was lifeless.
As days passed by, the Lady Eagles were somehow able to win games. They were resilient in the sense that they were winning all their matches except against the top two teams. There was a time when Coach Tai had to leave indefinitely but the Lady Eagles were still able to hold the fort well even if they had to win tough five-setter games.
While Ateneo was winning, La Salle was pulverizing the league. They never lost a set until the middle of the second round. It was very apparent that they are heading to their fourth straight championship. The only hope then of beating La Salle was via the NU Lady Bulldogs. They were not as experienced, but the Lady Bulldogs have the talent. They even dominated La Salle on some stretches of their second round match. But as my buddy Dave tells me, the La Salle Lady Spikers are the Machine. They play efficiently and effectively. Their expertise? Defense. They block the ball extremely well. If not, they are good at keeping the ball alive. They have a plethora of offensive weapons too as they rarely field a libero. As for intangibles, they have championship experience and poise. They know how to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat. They even have the swagger that championship teams possess. They have immense confidence deep inside that they know they are winning the match no matter what happens. They are pretty much everything you could ask for from a sports team. Only problem for me is, they are from our rival school.
NU may have dominated La Salle at some stretches in their second round match, but La Salle still emerged victorious with a four-set win. Because of that, La Salle automatically got a Finals seat (and a thrice to beat advantage to boot) while the rest of the Final Four teams have to duke it out in a step-ladder format.
But as an Ateneo fan, I could care less. I was just glad that our women’s volleyball team was able to win all the matches against the non-Top Two Teams. This is our rebuilding season after all. The most you could ask for from a team in a rebuilding year is that they compete well and they get as much experience as they can. The Ateneo Lady Eagles have unexpectedly overachieved and are even in the Final Four, something that their male basketball counterparts failed to achieve this season.
However, we should note that the step-ladder format is vicious to the teams ranked third and fourth. They have to fight each other first before they meet the second seed which even have the twice-to-beat advantage. And with Ateneo just winning one set against NU in the elimination round, I have to say that it was a longshot to reach even the rubber match with the NU Lady Bulldogs. The Road to the Finals for the Final Four/Five teams was like this: Adamson and FEU need to win four straight matches, Ateneo needs to win three straight while NU just needs one. For Ateneo, Adamson and FEU, one loss would end the season. Tall order.
I attended the matches live because each match felt like the last. By looking at the talent, experience and elimination round performance of the teams, it was highly improbable for the Lady Eagles to reach the Finals. The Lady Eagles may have been the higher seeded team but we have to note that they almost lost in the elimination round against Adamson when they were down 13-10 in the final set (Note: You just need 15 points to win the final set. I still do not know how the Lady Eagles managed to score five straight points to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat in that match). Then if they defeat Adamson, the Lady Eagles would even have a tougher task of even winning multiple sets against NU – the team that only gave one set win to Ateneo for the entirety of the elimination round.
But because we are already here in the Final Four, why not believe? Isn’t that one of the important aspects of fandom? After all, hope is not a bad thing.
As the How I Met Your Mother ladies tried to revive Barney, the guys (Ted and Marshall) got the possible ingredients of Barney’s famous Stinson Hangover Fixer Elixir. They do not have an idea how to concoct it but for the sake of their friend, why not try it? They had to do extreme acts to achieve this like eating all the bacon in the inn just to get the chef to cook bacon again and provide them their much-needed bacon grease.
By the time the gang was about to make the elixir, they asked Barney how to do it. Barney was struggling to talk but was able to tell them the most important thing about the elixir – it was fake. It did not have any scientific evidence that it could cure hangovers. He had them believing on a fake stuff all these years.
Why believe? Honestly, I cannot provide you any scientific reason to back up the idea of believing and hoping. I could even have an empirical data of how many times I believed in something through the years and it would probably even show that the result was a failure more than it was a success. If believing were a sure thing, I would have been married to a lovely wife and probably have a family living in a large mansion right now while I drive a Ferrari on the streets. Or maybe, I would have won several sporting bets because the team I believed in won every time or has covered the spread. Or maybe, we have world peace by now. The list goes on and on. There are many ways to disputing the success that we get from believing.
But I still went to the games and cheered. I still believed in the Lady Eagles even if chance would tell me it is a long shot. Sports fans continue to hold ‘Believe’ signs during games. Why believe?
Why believe?
Why believe? We believe because that is the first step and should be what continues to be one’s mentality when they do things. I know things will not go your way for a lot of times. But believing gives that extra push that you might need in life. If the Lady Eagles stopped believing on themselves at the start of the season, they may have lost the will to win the matches. Remember the five-setter games? There were several times in those matches that they could have lost. However, they continued to believe in themselves and they fought. Remember when Coach Tai was not around for a long time? A team with a weaker determination would fold under pressure. But, these girls believed in themselves. As fans, the best we could do is also to believe in them.
When asked why he had them believing on fake stuff, Barney said he made all the stuff up because he loved his friends. The first time he gave the elixir to them was during their worst possible moments (that was why they were drunk after all). Barney gave the drink to them to rally them to build some positive energy to believe that they can bounce back from their huge setbacks. He made the fake elixir so they could believe that they could rally. More importantly, it worked.
When Alyssa Valdez was having a hard time to stand up from the face plant incident, there were two charming things that happened: 1) Her teammates gathered up to bring her up to her feet. 2) The crowd was cheering and applauding her. Those simple acts of inspiration rallied her and the team. It was like the Ateneo gallery’s way of saying, “Hey, we are in this with you.” And from there, the Lady Eagles rallied and won the set. Yup, we just won multiple sets in one match against the team that almost swept us in the elimination round.
Heart strong. Those were the words of Coach Tai during the huddles with these Lady Eagles this year. That has got to be the resounding cry for the team this year. We might not be as talented as the other squads. We may have suffered crucial injuries that set us back. We may be lacking in experience because this was a team of rookies and backups. But what we lack on those things, we make up for it by having a huge heart. We make up for these by believing in our team. After all, we have come this far, what’s stopping us now?
When the Ateneo Lady Eagles defeated the NU Lady Bulldogs in the first game in the Final Four, I was on a high. Wow, we just upset this team that almost dominated the La Salle Lady Spikers in the second round. I know we are still undermanned and have less talent than them, but what the heck, we just defeated them in a match. There is a chance. Thus, I made all effort to attend the rubber match last Saturday.
That was when I realized how I love this year’s batch. Aside from having the heart, they were a bunch of driven individuals who are trying to prove that they have what it takes. Alyssa Valdez and Denden Lazaro were crucial pieces from the past two years. Having said that, they continuously get criticized that they could not win it all. This year, it is amazing to see Alyssa and Denden’s determination in willing this team to win. I smile every time Alyssa plays through pain. I applaud every time Denden dives to keep the ball alive. She has saved a lot of crucial possessions that could have swung the momentum towards NU’s direction.
Then, we have the rookies. Jia Morado plays well as the setter. She does not overdo things and that is very important if you are quarterbacking for your team. Michelle Morente was a revelation this year. When Gopico and Tejada went down to season-ending injuries, Morente was able to deliver the scoring load quite well. Being the backup at the start of the season did not set her back and in the first win against NU, she delivered the crucial scores in the latter sets. Aerieal Patnongon is a very decent blocker. She held herself up against NU’s twin towers. The only set we lost that game was when Aerieal sat. She may not have scored a lot of points, but she played her role in defense very well. At long last, we have a very tall blocker in the team other than Alyssa.
Last but not the least, we have the backups from previous seasons that have entered the starting lineup this year. As much as you would want to criticize Amy Ahomiro’s unorthodox play, you cannot take away the fact that she is trying her best for this team. Sure, her serve looks awkwardly funny but that weird motion scored some aces for us. Opponents do not expect her to attack but she admirably delivered when she was given the ball in the rubber match. This was critical especially because NU was prepared for Morente’s attacks. And of course, we have the Ellavator – Ella De Jesus. Ella, despite of her talent, had to sit in the bench for years. She was highly touted as a rookie but because Coach Gorayeb wants the Fab Five to stay intact during those years, Ella was a benchwarmer. She is the smallest non-setter Lady Eagle at 5’3” but she chalks up a lot of points per game. She is the team’s second best scorer. And even if she is small, she elevates well to block opponents’ attacks. I like this athlete a lot because waiting did not set her back. It just toughen her up to be a great team player now. Now, that is heart.
With a squad filled with people like these, how could you not root for them? They are extremely likable even up to the part when they say thanks to their opponent for a good game. Sportsmanship at its best.
Do you believe in miracles? Winning one against NU was tough. Winning two straight? Almost impossible. If you watched how unstoppable the Santiago sisters are when they reach a certain elevation level in the middle, NU can just rinse and repeat that attack style and the game is over. Their blocking is also impeccable. During the second set of Game 2, they were overwhelmingly dominant as they limited the Lady Eagles to just eight points. If we were not lucky to steal the first set, that match could have been over there.
But when we won the first set of the rubber match, I knew we have a shot. The Lady Bulldogs have planned and adjusted for this match but the Lady Eagles were still able to steal that set. As one of the signboards held last Saturday, “Heart > Height.” These heart strong Lady Eagles came to play.
And you know what, the crowd also came to cheer their hearts out. I have been to a lot of volleyball games already but I always observe the crowd being more of a laid-back, positive applauding crowd. The experience is very much different to the intensely jeering basketball crowd. Last Saturday? I think we just transformed to a basketball crowd. The predominantly Ateneo crowd booed each NU Lady Bulldog whenever they served. They ecstatically cheered whenever a Lady Eagle scores. It was like seeing an Ateneo Blue Eagle score a three. Sure, the crowd does not cheer the non-mainstream Ateneo cheers, but that’s OK (I figured a lot of the Ateneo fans are not even from Ateneo). The important thing was, the Ateneo gallery was passionately cheering in hopes of motivating the team further. I lost my voice but it’s all OK. This is one of the things why I love as a sports fan.
To those who think that boo-ing or heckling players is not classy, get off your high horse. It always happens in sporting events. Your role as a fan is to intimidate the opposing players as much as possible (and even get the officials to think twice when they blow the wrong calls). I am very glad that we got passionate fans last Saturday. Not sure if we will have the same against La Salle since there may be bandwagon fans, but I am hoping.
Alyssa Valdez went down in pain during the third set of the rubber match. It seemed like a bad fall. But like what happened in the previous game, the crowd cheered her on to rally her. She responded extremely well as she scored a bunch of points after that. Heart strong.
Again I ask, do you believe in miracles? You can throw in a bunch of reasons why the Ateneo Lady Eagles are going to be eliminated in the Final Four, but the team fought back. They believed. We believed. When the match ended in four sets last Saturday, I was ecstatic. The Lady Eagles did it. We are heading to the Finals. When unexpected events like this happen, it feels astoundingly great that you kept the faith all these times. That you believed. This is why we believe.
I know winning the Finals is still a long-shot. We need to win three before La Salle wins two. The Lady Eagles have not even won a single set against the DLSU Lady Spikers. The Lady Spikers have the been-there-done-that mentality by now and they are going to give the Lady Eagles a hell of a time. I actually expect the worst. But you know what? We are already here. We have a fighter’s chance. We have been believing this team all these times.
If you believe in miracles like I do, I ask you this question: Why not us?
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| Credit: ESPN's 30 for 30: Four Days In October |
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