Usually, we don’t do things six times in a row
Humans are instinctively always looking for something new, something fresh. We’re wired to grow tired.
It’s why we don’t like eating the same meal six times in a row, why we don’t watch a movie six times in a row.
In the world of sports, however, watching the same two teams fight for the title for six straight years can still offer a whole new level of excitement.
For the sixth straight year, the UAAP Women’s Volleyball Finals will have archrivals Ateneo de Manila University Lady Eagles and the De La Salle University Lady Spikers duking it out for the country’s top collegiate prize.
The Season 79 Finals feels like the Episode Six of Ateneo and La Salle’s Star Wars-esque saga. And we’ll take a take a look at the storylines heading into the series.
A New Chapter
All season long, the story for both teams was how each would deal with the loss of their programs’ pillar players. It’s been written about ad nauseam.
Ateneo were pegged to find another star after Alyssa Valdez, who started the Loyola-based squad’s renaissance, exhausted her playing years. Instead of anointing a new phenom, the Lady Eagles banded together and shared the attention, pressure, and spoils that had been squarely on Valdez’s shoulder for five years.
La Salle lost more key pieces compared to Ateneo. Starters Mika Reyes, Ara Galang, and Cyd Demecillo’s spots were hard to fill, and the Lady Spikers had to do plenty of adjusting mid-season to find the indelible chemistry that has powered La Salle teams a near two-decade dominance of the UAAP.
Glancing at both team’s elimination round matches, Ateneo seem like the overwhelming with the demoralizing way they have beaten La Salle twice.
But this is the Finals. In Season 76, Ateneo dropped both their elimination round matches to La Salle, who booked a ticket straight to the Finals. But come the championship series, not even La Salle’s thrice-to-beat advantage could stifle Ateneo’s stomp to title. There is no telling with these two historically-entrenched rivals.
Out of Comfort
Analytically, there is a lot to be said of this premiere match-up. But, to put things simply, both teams will just be looking to push each other out of their comfort zone.
In terms of scoring options, both spread the wealth quite evenly because they each have tremendous setters. Without Valdez, Ateneo setter Jia Morado’s balletic on-court movements have been greatly magnified.
Playing her final year, La Salle’s Kim Fajardo has shown that she can still carry a team even without her usual attackers.
Both setters are hard to predict, using a plethora of sets and a faster tempo compared to the rest of the UAAP.
To get a setter out of her game, one needs to serve hard and tactically. But once again, both teams have about the same number of high-level servers. However, Morado has shown better play when her receivers fail to give her good first touches (despite being in the bottom half of the league in reception and digging, Ateneo is still far and away the best attacking team in the league).
On the other hand, La Salle’s league-best reception alarmingly dipped when against Ateneo. Production from their open hitters will be imperative, especially in transition, when good first and second touches are scarce. Also, in both matches, La Salle’s tremendous defense has had no answer for Ateneo opposite Michelle Morente, who leads the match-up in scoring.
La Salle will undoubtedly have adjustments for everything Ateneo throw at them. Sitting in the driver’s seat of this match-up, the Lady Eagles might need to show the tremendous mid-match adjustments that has won them so many games over the years.
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In Episode 6 of Star Wars, Luke Skywalker returns and leads the resistance in stopping the construction of a second Death Star.
Without antagonizing either team, Ateneo, in this series, will be trying to stop a second La Salle title bid.
This title will be huge for both teams moving forward in this new era, as plenty of the players from both sides will continue be key characters in future seasons.
