Now that the basketball season is over, we can get to watch more UAAP Volleyball games. ABS-CBN Sports is covering UAAP 72 so selected volleyball matches can be watched live over at Studio23. Here’s the UAAP 72 Volleyball game schedule (Elimination Round 1):

UPDATE: This has been moved to February. You can still register your team until towards the end of January if there are still slots!

Volle 650 Season 6 is a co-ed volleyball tournament and will be in play every weekends. Two divisions: Open and Corporate. Read the guidelines first.

Games in the V-League conference are heating up. After Benilde upset Ateneo and Adamson beat FEU and San Sebastian, the matches on Friday are just going to be as exciting. However, Adamson and UST are favored come Thursday. Adamson will be facing Benilde. The danger however is that Benilde will be playing without pressure while Adamson will want to catch up to either make sure of a Final Four berth or at least a playoff game. Ateneo meanwhile is in a tough situation. They will face the top team of the conference, UST. It will be a tough road but time and time and again Ateneo has shown that they are a tough team to crack, only inconsistent.

It’s time once again for the Shakey’s V-League tournament to take center stage. Its 2nd Conference for Season 6 is fast approaching. I think it should commence sometime this October? Last time around, it was the University of Santo Tomas that captured the crown during the 1st conference. The Tigresses defeated then defending champs San Sebastian College-Recoletos in 3 sets.

After taking a look at the latest Shakey’s V-League team line up info, looks like UST will be missing the services of their MVP player Mary Jean Balse. (To my initial disbelief, I did go over the list at least 3x before it dawned to me that UST will really be “Balse-less” this time around). She will be replaced by running spike specialist Roxanne Pimentel as UST’s guest player.

Here are some other interesting stuff I noticed in the team lineup:

HOST: Volleyball Game Date group (VGD)
DATE: Saturday, October 10, 2009
TIME: 6:30pm – 9:00pm
VENUE: Ateneo de Manila Blue Eagle Gym (along Katipunan Ave.)
RATES: P80 per head

Note: Please confirm your attendance by emailing group coordinator Abbie Manlapaz at volleyballgamedate@gmail.com. To those bringing friends, inform the group how many players you will be bringing for head count. You can also confirm via this Facebook event.

For those of you who are watching the NCAA Volleyball Season 85 games, note that there has been some changes in the game schedule due to typhoon Pepeng. Games are held at the EAC gym (Emilio Aguinaldo College). And looks like the Finals matches will be aired live over at Studio23. Here’s the announcement:

RE: 85th Volleyball Provisional Schedule For Second Round

As earlier announced to the participating team coaches and technical officials during Game 1 today, and in view of the coming Typhoon Pepeng, for the safety of the participants of the quarter final round of the 85th NCAA Volleyball Season, Games 2 & 3 slated on October 3 & 4 (Saturday & Sunday) respectively is moved to October 6 and 8, 2009, with the same playing time starting at 8AM.

Tickets dated on the postponed game days October 3 & 4 shall be honored on the playing dates October 6 and 8, 2009…

Calling all volleyball players who love the game. Join us and play some volleyball. Invite your friends. Join the Volleyball Game Date (VGD) group mailing list to receive invites to our weekly volleyball games. The more the merrier!!

Former Ateneo Lady Ealge Patti Taganas writes…

Hi Sir Marc,

I’ve been meaning to tell you, I got an A for my STRAMA (thesis), and I graduated last August 2 with honors. I just wanted to say thank you, and it wouldn’t have been possible without your help, with the survey and all. God bless and more power to the Spike It Hard blog.

Thanks again,

Patti Taganas

Thanks to all those folks who answered Patti’s survey on the Shakey’s V-League fan base. I think there were around 150 good souls who took the time and answered the survey. All the data we have provided were used by Patti for her thesis.

So Patti, what have you learned about the fan base of the Shakey’s V-League from your study? Maybe you can share whatever insights you gained from all this.

A month ago, the NCAA folks were undecided as to where to hold the 85th NCAA Volleyball tournament. Earlier, discussion between the NCAA board and its partner Philippine Sports Commission (PSC) suggested the use of Rizal Memorial Sports Complex at the Ninoy Aquino Stadium as the official venue. But due to cost constraints, the NCAA had to break this deal off and decided to officially hold the volleyball games at the Emilio Aguinaldo College (EAC) gymnasium. Here’s a short announcement taken from the official http://ncaa.org.ph/ website:

I was updating my Facebook account when I stumbled upon this Facebook fan page entitled “SmartBRO UAAP”. Apparently, SmarBRO will power the brightest stars in this season’s UAAP games. The account shows some behind-the-scenes shots from the photoshoot featuring a variety of UAAP athletes. Don’t be surprised to see billboards or posters or even TV commercials (I hope) featuring your favorite UAAP superstars in the near future being promoted by SmartBRO.

Of course, what caught my attention while I was browsing through the pages of this SmartBRO Facebook account were the UAAP Volleyball athlete endorsers!! Here’s a list of all the UAAP athletes who are part of this campaign. Take note of those volleyball athletes in the list: