with still a few more days from the start of the pccl final four, i decided to get my ateneo fix by watching the volleyball game between the lady eagles and the ue lady warriors at the blue eagle gym this afternoon.
i'm not really much of a volleyball fan, but i do watch volleyball games... well, women's volleyball games. i myself tried playing volleyball when i was in the minor seminary, to no avail. hahaha! but watching women's volleyball live is an entirely different experience from that of men's basketball: drums and cheers only done during dead ball, not so much complaints from the crowd on the ref's calls, and no fabilioh.com to pose for. but the "oohs" and "aahs" for every attempt from the blue and white keep the eagles' spirit alive.
it was also nice seeing my professor in philosophy during my college years in the venue. he was there to support his daughter, who is currently the captain of the team. well, so was i. hahahaha!
speaking of getting our ateneo fix, we will be seeing the blue eagles play once more to defend their pccl championship and have the mvp perpetual trophy (that's what it's called) stay in katipunan. here's the schedule:
taken from the pccl website
this will be an interesting pccl final four as ateneo is the only uaap team standing, as they are contending for a record three straight national championships with san sebastian golden stags (luzon-mm regional champion), san beda red lions (ncaa champion), and university of cebu webmasters (visayas-mindanao champion).
the blue eagles have been quite productive after winning their fourth consecutive uaap championship. coach norman black and his core players greg slaughter, kiefer ravena, emman monfort, and nico salva are coming off a gold medal finish with sinag pilipinas in the 26th sea games. the rest of the blue eagles and some "team glory b" players won the university games basketball title last month. if they get their acts together and shake the proverbial ring rust off, then the blue eagles are aiming to complete another "grand slam" of sorts by adding the pccl to their already championship-laced 2011 (which also includes the fil-oil pre-season cup).
as usual, there will be interesting match-ups to behold in this tournament. the university of cebu has man-mountain junemar fajardo, who have waged countless basketball wars in the visayas with greg slaughter. there's also the pinatubo trio of ronald pascual, ian sanggalang, and calvin abueva for san sebastian whose physical style of play might pose match-up problems with our starters. and of course, san beda would like to get some retribution from the blue eagles after losing to them in the fil-oil pre-season cup last march.
with a round robin format in the final four, it will be more interesting to find out who gets to play in the championship game, as it seems that the quotient system will be used to break ties in the standings. according to the ever-reliable chinoy hoops fan: "The team at the end of the round-robin phase with the highest record gets twice to beat in the Finals versus the team with the next highest record."
while everyone is waiting for nba to open in 26 days, we still have college basketball to watch and the ateneo blue eagles to root for in the pccl.
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