June 24, 2007. It was the second game of the day between the Ateneo Blue Eagles and La Salle Spikers. After watching the previous game where UST won against Lyceum, I decided to stay at The Arena in San Juan to witness more Shakey’s V-League volleyball action. The Green Team was heavily favored to win the match since they have been winning one game after another in the semis. As for the blue and white camp, after losing star player Kinchana Jindarat due to back injury, they acquired veteran Amy Guangco of La Salle to play for the Eagles.

La Salle started strong thanks to smart attacks made by #8 Carla Llaguno and hard-hitting guest player #12 Sanorseang Areerat. During the 5-5 mark, #8 Charo Soriano tripped on fellow teammate #8 Bea Chermaine Pascual of Ateneo. The game was momentarily stopped. Soriano continued on playing with a slightly sprained right ankle. The first set was a see-saw battle up until the 15-all mark. Then La Salle pulled away relying on a combination of well executed attacks from Areerat, crowd favorite #14 Manilla Santos, and middle blocker #10 Michelle Datuin. La Salle took on the first set at 25-19.

Lady Eagle Laborte battles it out with 2 La Salle blockers.

Instead of starting it strong on the second set, the Blue Spikers started to collapse committing error after error. La Salle advanced to as much as 5-0. After being blocked, La Salle revived the ball and went back to Areerat who pulled off a very cunning drop spike. The Archers still was leading at 10-3. I noticed that Areerat isn’t as pretty as Santos or Llaguno but she has the sweetest smile. Lighten up and smile more often girl!!! Surprisingly, Ateneo fought back and relied on the injured Soriano and star player #3 Michelle Laborte. The score was now 13-10 after Laborte made an in-your-face middle spike to La Salle’s Manilla Santos. But Santos responded with her trademark down the line open spike. After #6 Amy Guanco of Ateneo and Areerat of La Salle exchanged points, the score was now 22-18. Ateneo then crumbled with errors and lost the second set, 25-19.

I was sitting beside a group of grandpas who looked like they were sponsors for the V-League since I would always see them sit anywhere they wanted. I overheard them say, “Tignan niyo yung #8 ng Ateneo, naka T-back!”. Wow, grandpas with x-ray vision!! Going back to the game, the third set turned out to be more disappointing as the Lady Eagles continued to commit errors. The La Salle Spikers overpowered Ateneo winning the third set at 25-15.

Middle blocker Charo Sariano of Ateneo.

La Salle won in 3 straight sets: 25-19; 25-19; 25-15. After losing all its four semis games, Ateneo ended its bid for the Finals with a 3-8 record.

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