In the recently concluded STCAA (Southern Tagalog Calabarzon Athletic Association), among all coaches who talked to her, FEU and UST are the most aggressive, with the coaches promising her a first six slot in the team next season. The coaches of  ADU and NU are also constantly talking to her. She has likewise trained with both the UAAP Season 74 finalists DLSU and ADMU and has impressed both coaches.

After passing numerous entrance tests by both UAAP and NCAA schools, she has decided which school she will study and she will play for next UAAP Season 75 or NCAA Season 88. Now, which school will she go to? Only Jirah knows.

Do check out this site for the Big Decision of Jirah Llaneta one of these days.

If you missed this, then here are some video highlights from the Olympic-style UAAP Season 74 Opening Ceremony I found on YouTube:

The UAAP Beach Volleyball event will start this first semester on August 27 at the University of the East-Caloocan volleyball sand courts. FEU and Adamson are the defending beach volleyball champions in the men’s and women’s divisions respectively.

As in previous years, the UAAP Indoor Volleyball event is scheduled to kick off at the second semester sometime this November. UST is the defending champs for the men’s division while De La Salle University holds the title for the women’s division.

• Game 1 – February 23, 2011 (Wednesday)
  1:00PM – Men’s: UST vs. FEU
  3:00PM – Women’s: UST vs. DLSU
• Game 2 – February 26, 2011 (Saturday)
  1:00PM – Men’s: UST vs. FEU
  3:00PM – Women’s: UST vs. DLSU

It’s all set!! In the Men’s Division, it’s going to be a battle between the hard-hitting FEU Tamaraws and defending champs University of Santo Tomas. In the Women’s Division, the Lady Tigresses will meet the Lady Archers once more.

Semis 2 vs. 3. February 16, 2011 (Wednesday). Far Eastern University defeated University of the Philippines in 3 sets: 25-16, 25-22, 25-20. Best Scorers were (#3) Nestor Molate of FEU with a total of 14 won points and (#9) Mark Justin Sagad of UP with 8 points. Game duration: 1hour 14mins.

Semis 1 vs. 4. February 19, 2011 (Saturday). University of Santo Tomas defeated De La Salle University in 5 sets: 23-25, 20-25, 25-16, 25-16, 15-8. Best Scorers were (#10) John Paul Torres of UST with a total of 24 won points and (#1) Chris Macasaet of DLSU with 14 points. Game duration: 1hour 57mins.

Women’s division:

Semis 2 vs. 3. February 16, 2011 (Wednesday). University of Santo Tomas defeated Adamson University in 4 sets: 25-23, 25-18, 17-25, 25-21. Best Scorers were (#8) Aiza Maizo of UST with a total of 20 won points and (#8) Angela Benting of ADU with 23 points. Game duration: 1hour 43mins.

Semis 1 vs. 4. February 19, 2011 (Saturday). De La Salle University defeated Ateneo de Manila University in 5 sets: 26-24, 21-25, 25-17, 26-28, 15-10. Best Scorers were (#4) Stephanie Mercado of DLSU with a total of 19 won points and (#6) Angeline Marie Gervacio of ADMU with 19 points. Game duration: 2hours 9mins.

To see the complete UAAP 73 Volleyball Semi-Finals collated results, see Update#30.

Did you miss watching the semi-finals games? You can relive the volleyball action thanks to Elvyrol’s UAAP Volleyball Hub which is basically a collection of all the UAAP 73 matches uploaded on YouTube. I hope this guy never gets a day job so he can continue what he is doing (just kidding elvyrol!! Keep up the nice work!). Among all the semi-finals matches, here’s one of the most exciting ones:

Women’s DLSU defeating ADMU in 5 sets

To see the complete and UAAP 73 collated results and standing, see Update#28.

Watch the UAAP 73 Volleyball semi finals LIVE on Studio23 (yes, they will also televise the men’s semi finals games and not just the women’s).

• February 16, 2011 (Wednesday)
  2pm: Men’s Divison – FEU vs. UP
  4pm: Women’s Division: UST vs. ADU
• February 19, 2011 (Saturday)
  2pm: Men’s Division – UST vs. DLSU
  4pm: Women’s Division – DLSU vs. ADMU

For those who will be stuck in the office like myself, we can get to watch the games via online live streaming. There are a several websites I found like this one, but I’m not too sure if they work at all. Please feel free to share any info on where we can watch the games online.

Any game predictions?

We’re talking about the game between UST and UP where the UP Lady Maroons stepped up big time and beat defending champs UST. It was an awesome match! After losing set 1, the Tigresses were so shocked I never saw Aiza Maizo smile (no even a smirk!) all throughout the game. UP on the other hand played with all heart (and fired up emotions!) and was able to sustain it ’til the end to eventually snatch the match. Open spikers Carmela Lopez and Angeli Araneta did the most damage with 16 and 14 points respectively.

With a current team standing of 2 (wins) – 8 (losses), I don’t think UP will make it to the final four but I’m sure all the fans hope that UP will be able to at least finish their remaining games with fire in their eyes! Beating a top team like UST (although I don’t think UST played their true game last Sunday) should have been an eye-opener for UP and they probably have finally said to themselves – hey! we can do it after all!! Let’s hope UP can churn up a few more upsets (hint: DLSU vs. UP will be on Feb. 9 Wed. – a lot of time for both teams to prepare).

UST vs. UP Game Summary:

January 23, 2011 (Sunday). University of the Philippines defeated University of Santo Tomas in 5 sets: 25-23, 13-25, 25-23, 20-25, 24-22. Best Scorers were (#18) Carmela Lopez of UP with a total of 18 won points and (#10) Maika Angela Ortiz of UST with 18 points. Game duration: 2hours 4mins.

See the complete UST vs. UP game stats.

Coincidentally, Team Spikeithard.com women’s volleyball team lost their Viking Cup semi-finals match (also last Sunday and also in 5 sets!) to All Star Cast (ASC) which is mostly composed of former UP varsity players. Hmmm, I guess last Sunday was a great day for UP.

Going back to the UST vs. UP match, thanks to a certain elvyol who uploaded the entire 5 sets online divided into around 11 video clips I think. These videos will most likely get taken down though, so better watch it while you can:

To see the complete and recent UAAP 73 collated results and standing, see Update#19.

If you haven’t watched UAAP Volleyball live at the San Juan Fil-Oil Arena, then now is the time to do so because there’s just about 9 playing days left for round 2. I’ve got a feeling the following games will get more exciting.

Here’s the UAAP Season 73 Volleyball second round eliminations game schedule (as of 1/15/2011). I got this from the PinoySpikers.com site:

For sure, the games later will be exciting since both UP vs NU and ADMU vs UST were five-setters in the first round. Let’s see if there will be reversals of wins or if the winning team will sweep the other. Good Luck to both teams indeed!

Today, we’ll pretty much sum up the 1st round as to how you’d like it with a special guest in UST legendary player and TV commentator Mozzy Ravena. So enjoy our analyses and feel free to comment below! Hopefully, she’ll become a regular here in SpikeItHard and that she will continue to entertain us.

UAAP SEASON 73
Women’s Volleyball 1st Round Summary
Made by:

Mozzy Ravena

Jannie Gavile

Bea Samson

Benj Zabat

(next page: WHAT WE THOUGHT OF TEAMS IN THE FIRST ROUND)

Apparently, the unbeaten De La Salle Lady Archers in the ongoing UAAP 73 Women’s Volleyball is in the brink of forfeiting either some of their games or perhaps all of them due to a violation of a UAAP rule wherein current UAAP players are not allowed to play in any other league or tournament for the duration of the tournament. To sum up everything, here’s sir Theo’s article taken from www.journal.com.ph website:

The unbeaten league leader (DLSU), stares at the possibility of forfeiting four of its wins in the first round after two of its players allegedly played in an invitational league while the season is ongoing.

The league is now investigating the controversy as La Salle had already suspended the players reportedly involved, namely, reserve setter Carmela Garbin and blocker Clarisse Yeung. The two allegedly suited up and played in the WCC 3rd Viking Cup Open Invitational Cup tournament.

The tournament was the same meet where College of Saint Benilde players Arianne Yap and Janel Lim saw action, causing the Lady Blazers’ disqualification in the semifinals of the NCAA women’s volleyball tournament.

La Salle had already transmitted the letter to the UAAP board and the issue is expected to be tackled in next week’s meeting.

We all have become DLSU fans because of the domination they have shown in the first round of UAAP 73. After beating their rival UST in 3 sets, I think most people already placed their bets on La Salle winning the crown this season. And then, this happened.

Why La Salle always seem to find itself in such controversies, that puzzles a lot of fans. Not too long ago, the Jacqueline Alarca controversy resulted to DLSU dropping down from the final four because of game forfeitures back in 2008.

In the end, this is a big blow not only to DLSU, the other schools, the UAAP/NCAA, the open volleyball leagues out there, but to the entire volleyball community. Just when volleyball in the country is finally starting to pick up slowly but surely, controversies like these suddenly come to the surface.

By the next UAAP season, sure, we will all probably forget about this and move on with our lives (but we can always reminisce through the blog posts, tweets, and PEX). But stilll, I think things like these can certainly be avoided and something can be done.

So how can we prevent this from happening again?

Most people would put all the blame on the players who clearly knew they are not supposed to play in any other tournaments for the duration of the UAAP season, but have still done so and risked jeopardizing not only their team but the school they are representing as well. One obvious solution has got to be through enforcing discipline. And this can be done by the people and institutions surrounding the players: the coaches, teammates, school program heads, UAAP board, etc.

The other solution I can think of will be coming from the organizers of these open (usually non-collegiate) volleyball leagues/tournaments (ex. Viking Cup, PVC, PVF National Open, Hope Volleyball Club, etc.). I understand that an “open league” essentially means that anyone can join, but maybe it’s about time the organizers consider these issues that has happened in the UAAP/NCAA, and implement a rule banning any current collegiate players to join.

Let’s hope and pray that the UAAP board and everyone involved will be able to talk things out nicely, and come up with a series of actions (hopefully not just sanctions) to remedy this whole issue. If in case, DLSU forfeits some of its games, I’m sure most fans including myself (I love Gohing!) will still look at this team with utmost respect and admiration because of the prowess they have exhibited this season. If let say, they forfeit all their games then in the end manage to still win the crown… dammn!, I will change my favorite color to green

PS: I really had a hard time thinking what to put as the title for this blog post. Initially, I thought of “DLSU: Oops they did it again!”