The Ateneo Lady Eagles are back to playing their “Happy-Happy” brand of volleyball, showing their supreme confidence in their classic five-set victory over La Salle last Sunday.
No one exemplified more exuberance on the court than sophomore middle hitter, Bea De Leon. The Poveda standout was pivotal in Ateneo’s fifth set rampage, blocking and fist-pumping Ateneo to a 15-5 romp.
De Leon finished with 12 points but, perhaps more importantly, she came away with a rejuvenated outlook on volleyball. Having played the sport almost everyday of her life in college, De Leon admitted that it nearly became a routine for her.
“I haven’t had this much fun playing in a while. Siyempre, we train every day; we kind of forget how passionate we all are about the game. Kasi di naman sa nakakasawa but it becomes routine, so we really forget,” De Leon told reporters. “Coming into this game, we really just made it a point to be intense and be really happy, so it was really really fun,” she added.
Ateneo’s celebrated every point they scored with the glee of children opening presents on Christmas Day. This, according to De Leon, was intentional.
“I think everyone even noticed that the last game versus La Salle and our previous loss to UP as well, we weren’t happy. So we made it a point na maging intense kasi, as the saying goes, fake it until you make it. So even if dejado kami, just fake it, fake celebration until you actually get it. And it actually really works, for me, at least. And siyempre kasi when everyone’s intense, everyone’s happy, everyone’s going in and doing their jobs.”
Before the match, a lot of fuss was made about Amy Ahomiro’s mission to keep Mika Reyes quiet. For her part, De Leon thought she and Kiwi were successful in limiting La Salle’s middle blockers’ effect on the match.
“I don’t think anybody would say na i hope they score a lot. So definitely, we want to stop them as much as possible and I think we did. I think Kiwi did exactly that, and it played naman to our advantage. so why not di ba?,” De Leon expressed.
Winning against La Salle gave Ateneo the confidence boost it needed after their performance in the first round. Ateneo beat every team in the league, clinched the top seed, and De Leon could not be happier.
“(I think this win is) very very big. I think it would be common sense naman to say na if they (La Salle) swept us, siyempre mawawalan din kami nang confidence. Especially if we face them again. And this win to us sobrang saya sa amin. We haven’t had fun in a while so sobrang saya na we all still have that in us,” De Leon closed.
