UAAP Season 72’s “Midterm” Review

By Benj Zabat and Jannie Gavile

Truly this season is packed with suprises that we volleyball fans are very pleased to know things like DLSU (along with their rookies) showing dominance in this season; how Tabaquero and their rookies has affected the quality of play they are showing. A much improved UP and NU teams, a Daquis-less and Morada-less season for FEU (add to Shai’s injury which caused her to stop playing until now) which is solely being caried by Cherry Vivas and how the Lady Eagles and Lady Falcons have stepped up their games and played with more maturity and finally, how a very disappointing Lady Warriors may have found theirselves on probably the worst scoring volleyball game in recent UAAP history. So to give our dear readers on my insights on how the teams have perfomed read on… (This is in no particular order)

1.)    De La Salle University Lady Spikers (7-0) : A

Yes they are the defending champions and they would not be for nothing but for starters, they have been missing in action since last season and has not been seen until the UNIGAMES where the Tigresses finished them in three sets during the championship match. The volleyball fans then predicted that the Lady Spikers would have a rather lousy performance and would not perform to expectations but wholla, look at what the team has become and like what most analysts would say, “the risk of not joining off-season competitions paid off”. Even though they had a rusty first match against UST (which they won in five sets), the next games proved that even if they lost key players Illa Santos and Mitch Datuin, they are even performing as if the team is intact and the same line-up was playing last year; dare I say even better than the championship team that played last season. Really, kudos to Coach Ramil and the rest of the players for proving skeptics wrong: the De La Salle Lady Spikers are back and is ready to defend their crown. Yeah baby!

2.)    Ateneo de Manila Univeristy Lady Eagles (5-2) : B

The famed rookies of Ateneo are now sophies: Which means that volleyball fans have greater expectation on the kind of play that they will bring especially that they have seasoned setter, Jem Ferrer. So far so good though their performance is kind of a mixed bag meaning, if they find their groove early in the game, chances are they will be unstoppable like what they did to a powerhouse team like UST but is very erratic when they faced teams like DLSU and AdU. If only the team can have a more vocal and emotional leader and consistent performance, then maybe they would have a better contention at their first finals appearance this year.

3.)    University of Santo Tomas Lady Tigers (5-2) : C

Okay, hold your horses right then and there. I know UST has been playing superb and you know that. However, I also know that they can do much better than that. They are the reigning V-League champs for an instance that is why I’ve set the bar high for them and they should have been in the place where DLSU is right now but, they seem to have been over complacent that they can sweep everyone around. Thing is though, they need to seriously work on their floor defense and they need to raise the bar in terms of their playing performance. Until they finally find that real hunger to win this year’s UAAP volleyball crown and they take their competitive set seriously, all I can give them after this mid-season is a grade of C.

4.)    Adamson University Lady Falcons (5-2) : A

Peaking at the right time is the perfect way to describe the Lady Falcon’s performance this season. I gave them an A because, they have performed excellently during their past outings only being defeated by better blocking teams such as La Salle and UST. Part of the reason why I also gave them an A is because despite the fact that they lost key Middle Blocker and scorer in Sang Laguilles, the others are quick to rise to the challenge not to mention also the stellar performance of new setter Des Patilano. And again, who would forget the team’s awesome floor defense. A little more fine-tuning and finding ways to score against taller teams would be a tough challenge but hey, if there is a will, there is a way, right?

Pages: 1 2

You can leave a response to this post, or trackback from your own site.