Ateneo Blue Eagles - Sports - Volleyball

Volleyball

The Ateneo Volleyball Program enjoyed a modest success in the NCAA, having won a total of nine championships during a ten-year period from 1967 to 1976. The men's team had two titles and one from the women's, while the juniors team had won six titles. Ateneo dominated NCAA volleyball in the mid-1970s. In 1975, Ateneo had a double championship having won the NCAA volleyball title in the men's and juniors divisions and with the Blue Eaglet Spikers making it as three-peat champions. The following year, Ateneo was already considered a collegiate volleyball power as it not only won the 1976 NCAA volleyball title in all three divisions, thus achieving a triple championship but also the Blue Spikers were back-to-back champions and the Blue Eaglet Spikers were four-peat champions having won the 1972, 1974, 1975 and 1976 NCAA titles. These titles are considered consecutive because games were suspended in 1973.

Volleyball Championships

In the UAAP, Ateneo has still to win a title since transferring from the NCAA in 1978. The best performance so far of the Blue Spikers have been their two Final Four appearances, Seasons 71 (2008) and 72 (2009). Their highest seed in the Final Four has been 3rd place. The Lady Spikers had four Final 4 appearances (Season 70, 72, 73 and 74) with a second seed and twice-to-beat advantage in season 74. They were the first among the three volleyball varsity teams of Ateneo playing in the UAAP to have reached the Finals (Season 74). The Blue Eaglet Spikers' best finish has been first runner-up five times. In season 72 (2009), all three Ateneo varsity volleyball teams were in the Final 4.

The Lady Spikers have yet to end a 35-year title drought, although the program has seen improvements lately. In season 71 (2008–09), Roger Gorayeb, a multi-titled coach was hired as head coach of the Lady Spikers. Recruitment of blue-chip high school players went into high gear. Five blue-chip high school players (Fille Cainglet, Jem Ferrer, Dzi Gervacio, Gretchen Ho and A Nacachi), were recruited. Another group, consisting of three high school players, were recruited the following year, season 2009. One of whom was Aerieal Patnongon who stands at 6' 1". Season 2010 was not only another bumper year in recruitment but also an exciting one as Ateneo hit the jackpot when prized-rookie Alyssa Valdez, the most sought-after national youth volleyball team standout dubbed the "Phenom" by the sports press and three-time MVP in high school, was among the 5 high school players recruited (Denden Lazaro, Ela De Jesus, Bea Tan and Amy Ahomiro).

Ateneo continued to recruit blue-chip players in season 74 (2011–12). Mary Mae Tajima was recruited from Ateneo de Davao. Standing at 6' 2", she is the women's volleyball team tallest player ever.

The Lady Spikers were in the UAAP Final Four thrice since season 70 (2007–08). In the summer tournament, Shakey's V-League, which the Lady Spikers use as a preparation for the UAAP, they made the Final Four 3 times since 2008. But the big one is the Lady Spikers garnering its first major championship in thirty-five years when it won the 8th (2011) Shakey's V-League 1st Conference, a pre-UAAP season tournament. In this championship, the Ateneo player that stood above everybody else was rookie Alyssa Valdez. The 17-year-old prized recruit made it all possible. Her coach for this tournament, Charo Soriano a former star Lady Spiker herself, had this to say about the prized recruit, "She really pulled it through for us". It was one big and glorious night for Alyssa Valdez and the mighty Ateneo women's volleyball squad.

In season 74 (2011–12), the Lady Spikers ended the elimination round with 11 wins in 14 games, their best elimination round record in 33 seasons in the UAAP. For the first time ever, they were seeded second in the Final 4 with a twice-to-beat advantage. The Lady Spikers did not find it necessary to use this advantage as they beat UST in game 1 of their Final 4 series. With this win, they advanced for the first time to the Finals and had the defending champion La Salle as their opponent. La Salle swept the elimination round and thus had a thrice-to-beat advantage in the Finals. This means that they have to win only twice in the Finals while the Lady Spikers had to win three times to clinch the title. The Lady Spikers have not won over La Salle in the last four years. This losing streak was broken by the Lady Spikers when they won Game 1 of the Finals. Ateneo finally figured out a way to neutralize La Salle's formidable attacks, solid blocking and floor defense and put the Finals series on equal terms. The Lady Spikers were resolute on defense while turning to the trio of Fille Cainglet, Angeline Gervacio and Alyssa Valdez for attacks in key stretches to hand the La Salle Lady Spikers their first and only loss of the season. Unfortunately, the Lady Spikers lost the next two games and their first UAAP championship. Despite the runner-up finish, season 74 was considered a good year for the Lady Spikers. Aside from the first-time achievements mentioned above, there were several more. For the first time, the Lady Spikers beat Adamson and UST twice in a season, had 13 wins in a season, won a game in the Final 4 stage and had a rookie (Alyssa Valdez) who scored 30 points in one game.

The Lady Spikers were able to successfully defend their Shakey's V-League Season 8 1st Conference title, emerging as champions of the 1st Conference of Season 9 held in the summer of 2012. They were undefeated in the preliminary, quarter and semi-final rounds of the tournament. The Ateneo Lady Spikers defeated the UST Lady Spikers twice in their Best-of-Three series in the Finals. This makes them a back-to-back champion team. Awarded the Finals MVP plum was Alyssa Valdez who scored a collegiate career-high of 31 points (22 Attacks 8 Service Aces 1 Block) in Game 2 of the Finals. She scored a total of 73 points in the Finals series (59 Attacks 11 Service Aces 3 Blocks). The Lady Spikers garnered their second championship of the year 2012 when they won the 2012 Tuguegarao City Open Invitational held in June 24–30, 2012. They did this in dominating fashion. They did not lose a single set on their way to claiming the championship and the Php500,000.00 top prize.

In order to finally get that elusive first championship in the UAAP Women's Volleyball Division, Head Coach Roger Gorayeb changed his recruitment strategy. For Season 75 (2012–13), he recruited only high school players whom he found are college-play ready. He was able to recruit four, namely: Jirah Llaneta, open spiker (High school three-time MVP awardee), Jho Maraguinot, open spiker (High school Best Attacker awardee and 2012 Palarong Pambansa team captain of the CALABARZON secondary girls volleyball team), Marge Tejada, utility spiker (High school MVP, Best Server and two-time Best Receiver awardee and 2012 Palarong Pambansa team captain of the NCR secondary girls volleyball team) and Giz Tan, setter (High school MVP and five-time Best Setter awardee). UAAP volleyball Season 75 will start on the first week of December 2012.