TWO TEAMS from Ateneo de Manila represented the university in the Jesuit Athletic Meet 2016, a biennial event that brings together various Jesuit schools around the country for a week-long sports tourney. This year’s festivities was held on November 3 to November 8, 2016, and the event was hosted by Ateneo de Davao.
The Loyola Heights campus sent the Glory Be basketball team and the women’s volleyball team to the competition, which featured a total of eight Jesuit-run schools from Manila, Naga, Cebu, Iloilo, Palawan, Zamboanga, Cagayan de Oro and Davao.
In addtion to the competition between the eight schools was an Athlete’s Night program, where speakers were invited to talk about maintaining the balance between academics and athletics. This is part of the Jesuit initiative that aims to produce students with a sound mind in a sound body – “Mens Sana in Corpore Sano.”
Coach Yuri Escueta of Glory Be felt that the Athlete’s Night program was something very beneficial for his team to experience. “[It is] not just basketball that [they are] teaching there, [that is] why [I am] happy to bring the team there, so they can experience how other Jesuit schools teach the program,” said Coach Escueta. “[It is] also character building, [it is] also social awareness.”
Not as smooth sailing
Even though Ateneo de Manila’s teams were the most well-known in the tourney, having competed in the University Atlethics Association of the Philippines (UAAP) and other televised leagues, did not mean that they simply steam-rolled past their rivals on the court.
For basketball, the Glory Be team was sent, as team A is still competing in the current UAAP season. Although the team’s talent was shown in their championship run in this year’s Milcu Got Skills tournament, the team was mostly comprised of rookies who still lack experience.
Volleyball, on the other hand, was hamstringed by the unavailability of some players due to academic commitments, including veteran setter Jia Morado, libero Gizelle Tan, and spikers Ana Gopico and Ponggay Gaston. Further exacerbating the problems of the volleyball team was a sprained ankle suffered by Jamie Lavitoria during the game against the hometown team.
Events of the Tourney
The basketball team went undefeated on their way to bring home the championship crown, defeating their rivals by an average of 42 points. However, the dominating run was not a walk in the park for Glory Be.
“Di pushover yung mga kalaban namin, they have good basketball programs. It just so happened that the boys played well,” Coach Escueta says. “Actually, when we played [against] CdO [Cagayan de Oro] in the semis, they were up after the first quarter, 27-24. We just fought back.”
He also commended the performance of the other schools, which he said had respectable basketball programs, and that there were times in the past Jesuit Athletic Meets that they were able to recruit players from these schools to play in the UAAP.
The volleyball team, on the other hand, dropped the game against Ateneo de Davao when Lavitoria was injured. The team was unable to find a replacement since Deanna Wong was already playing libero in that game. However, Lavitoria was able to participate in the next game and the Lady Eagles were able to bounce back to win the top honours of the league, defeating Davao in straight sets in the final game.
The atmosphere of the games was more on the fun side, instead of the extremely competitive games the teams usually play in. “Well, masaya siya. Parang naglalaro lang kami, parang di sya sobrang competition (Well, it was fun. It was like we were just scrimmaging, not really so much of a competition),’ says Jho Maraguinot. She also adds that it was a great experience to meet athletes from other Ateneo schools.
Breakout Performances
Team Glory Be saw breakout performances from BJ Andrade, who was hot the entire tournament, especially in the game against Ateneo de Naga where he hit five downtown bombs, and Marc Salandanan was a consistent scoring threat for the team as well.
This does not really surprise the team, however. Coach Yuri attributed this to Andrade and Salandanan stepping up to take, and make, the shots they got off kickouts, as most of their rivals played a zone defense.
“We had the knowledge that they can do it, but with the zone collapsing inside, the opportunity went to them, and knowing them, they work hard on their shooting, so we knew it was going to happen eventually,” says Coach Escueta.
For the volleyball team, the tournament saw Katrina Tolentino, a long-awaited player for the team play. After being sidelined for the past two years with ACL injuries, the rookie from Canada brought her height and hitting power to bear against the opposing receivers, as she continues to increase her confidence on the court.
“Kat was super okay. She’s not that scared anymore; she has more confidence in hitting now. Like there are times where because of her height we just give it to her to end the rally,” adds Maraguinot.
