Day 1

BOTH THE Blue and Lady Beach Spikers were victorious on the opening day of the University Athletics Association of the Philippines (UAAP) beach volleyball tournament last Saturday, August 31, at the University of the East (UE) Caloocan sand courts.

The Lady Beach Spikers started the tournament with a three-set win against the National University (NU) Lady Bulldogs, 21-9, 17-21 and 15-6. The men’s team followed it up with a two-set sweep against the UE Red Warriors at 27-25 and 21-17.

The Lady Beach Spikers, bannered by Alyssa Valdez and Bea Tan, confidently delivered against the NU Lady Bulldogs in the first set. The duo showed consistency with both offense and defense, and they held down their opponents to single digits as they easily grabbed the first set, 21-9.

However, the veteran experience of the Lady Bulldogs prevailed in the second set. They made the proper adjustments and caught the Lady Beach Spikers off guard, sneaking away with a 21-17 triumph.

“Medyo nag-relax talaga kami (We really relaxed),” confesses Valdez, explaining how the duo let the second set slip away.

The Ateneo duo made sure that they did not duplicate their error in the final set. Utilizing a combination of sheer athleticism and smart ball-placement, they finished the match with a 15-6 beating in the deciding set.

“Ayaw na naming tumingin sa scoreboard. Nag-focus na kami sa third set na makamit yung goal namin na 15 (We didn’t want to look at the scoreboard anymore. We just focused on the third set and on achieving our goal of reaching 15),” Valdez said.

With this impressive showing by the Lady Beach Spikers, the men’s team, comprised of rookies Jeriel Apelar and Karl Baysa, was determined to start their UAAP season on an equally strong note.

The boys in blue were off to an explosive start, scoring on an 8-1 run against UE. With Apelar’s excellent court-vision, he managed to find the open spots in UE’s defense for easy points. However, UE turned things around when they let loose a scoring run of their own, crawling back within a point at 10-9.

From there, the set boiled down to a deuce at 20-all. The match kept resulting in deadlocks as both squads refused to let things slip away. Fortunately for the Ateneo, UE was careless in their service game and they gave away four service errors after the 20-all deuce. The Blue Beach Spikers’ hustle on the court prevailed, and an explosive spike by Baysa sealed the first set at 27-25 in favor of the Ateneo.

Apelar said that their proper mindset on the court helped them survive the comeback attempt by the Red Warriors in the first set. “I just kept telling Karl, ‘One point at a time, focus on one point and everything will take care of itself,’” he said.

But UE adjusted in the second set as they capitalized on four straight points, leaving the Ateneo scoreless at 0-4. But another seesaw battle took place as the Blue Beach Spikers’ took advantage of UE’s unforced errors.

In the end, it was the Ateneo’s all-around play—with Baysa’s aggressiveness and Apelar’s cerebral approach to the game—that captured the win. They secured the win of the opening game with a 21-17 victory.

Baysa attributed their win to their good on-court chemistry, “We had errors on ourselves so we wanted to make sure that we made up for that. I really don’t want to let Jeriel down and I’m sure he doesn’t want to let me down too.”

Day 2

The Ateneo Blue and Lady Beach Spikers had contrasting fates in their first assignments on day two of the tournament. The men’s team faced University of the Philippines (UP) while the women’s team went up against Far Eastern University (FEU).

The men’s duo of Apelar and Baysa went head-to-head with the Fighting Maroons in a three-set match-up. But the rookie tandem fell short in the third set, giving UP the win with a 27-25, 17-21 and 10-15 scoring.

According to Apelar, a number of factors led to their defeat, including the loss of energy and momentum, plus crucial errors they committed during the game.

On the other hand, the women’s team managed a come-from-behind win in the third set of their match against FEU, securing their second win of the season with a 21-9, 15-21 and 15-10 victory.

Several deadlocks occurred in the first set as both women’s teams exchanged spikes and unforced errors. As the set progressed, Valdez’ sharp serves and tip-ins allowed the Ateneo to move forward. The pair’s well-coordinated execution allowed the squad to build a lead with the score at 15-6. It was Valdez’s easy tip-in that secured the opening set at 21-9.

However, tides turned in set two. FEU claimed an early run against the Lady Beach Spikers, who committed errors both in their offensive and defensive plays. The Ateneo was down all throughout the set, even calling timeout twice as they tried to reclaim the game.

FEU continued the onslaught by consistently snatching the points from the long rallies and forcing the Ateneo to either hit the ball beyond the line or fall short on the other side of the net. Set two ended in favor of FEU, 21-15.

The do-or-die set was kicked off with a tip by Valdez, giving the Ateneo the first point. But FEU was quick to respond with on-the-spot spikes and receptions on their end. In a 2-7 run by FEU, the Ateneo called for a timeout. After, consecutive long rallies proceeded. Both teams swapped points each time until the score stood at 6-10. Tan’s tip followed by Valdez’ play served to end the pattern, relinquishing their opponents lead to just two. Valdez’s spike then tied the game at 10-all.

With the momentum now on their side, Valdez and Tan successfully ran away with 5 straight points to win it at 15-10.

In the afternoon, Apelar and Baysa again took to the sand courts to face Adamson (AdU) in the hopes of reversing their morning game’s results.

Early on in the first set, Apelar forced an outside ball for AdU, getting the first point for the Ateneo. Back-and-forth rallies gave way to a number of ties, until the blue-and-white tandem executed consecutive swift tip-ins and spikes that boosted their lead to five with 13-8.

After AdU’s time-out, the game changed momentum as AdU took advantage of the Ateneo’s unforced errors to take a 17-16 lead. Baysa’s serve tied the game at 17-all and Apelar’s strong tip-in allowed the Ateneo to reclaim the lead. After the neck-and-neck race to 21, the game came to a close with two consecutive power plays by Apelar. The Ateneo thus won the first set, 21-19.

During the second set, Baysa delivered an intense spike, overwhelming AdU and giving the Ateneo the first point. Despite committing consecutive errors, the Blue Beach Spikers were able to hold on to a three-point advantage, 5-2, until the match was halted due to poor weather.

It was announced soon after that the ongoing and proceeding matches, including the Lady Beach Spikers’ bout against DLSU, were postponed. Once the matches were rescheduled, the ongoing matches would pick up where they left off.

With thesudden postponement of the games, the Ateneo Blue and Lady Beach Spikers ended the opening weekend of the UAAP beach volleyball tournament with win-loss records of 1-1 and 2-0, respectively.

“It was overall a satisfactory weekend for us. A win is a win and we’re happy about how we followed through each game. We are positive that next weekend will be a better one for us,” said Valdez.

Both teams are looking to fortify their position in the team standings when they continue their Season 76 campaign on Saturday, September 7. The Blue Beach Spikers will be taking on FEU and NU at 10:30 AM and 1:00 PM, respectively, while the Lady Beach Spikers will go up against AdU at 9:00 AM and University of Santo Tomas at 12:30 PM. All matches will take place on the UE Caloocan sand courts.