Watched Ateneo vs Creamline Women's Volleyball Live

Finally after years of wishing, I had finally watched Alyssa Valdez play live in Cebu City! I didn't have to fly hours to Manila to watch her play!

I have become a fan from the first day I watched her play in the UAAP when she was still in her first year with Ateneo Lady Eagles. I attempted to watch UAAP before in Manila but failed. I was able to watch one match of the Ateneo Lady Eagles but she was not anymore part of the team. She graduated two years ago so she is now part of a commercial team instead, the Creamline.

Our tickets.

So when the opportunity came, I had to grab it and sure enough was willing to pay for the VIP seats! My in laws joined me too as they are also volleyball fans in general!

VIP Tickets were sold at Php 400, we reserved five seats and was lucky enough to find empty seats at the VIP section when we arrived at almost three. The game was set to start at four but because the first game took some time to finish, it ended up starting at almost six.

The first game was between the Southwestern University's Phinma and the University of San Jose's Lady Jaguars. The defending champion of the CESAFI, SWU's Phinma won the 3-1 match.

Alyssa giving her speech to thank the fans and the supporters.

As soon as the first game ended, they announced the Ateneo and Creamline team players. Of course there were shouting and screaming from all the fans plus attempts to get near the players for photo opportunities.

Certain introductions were done too plus this was a match for a greater cause which is why all of the organizers and the team players were really grateful for the huge response and support from the Cebu fans!

Alyssa serving.

The players warmed up while all the audiences took their chances of taking candid shots of the players. I understand there were really avid fans in the area who were all willing to scream their lungs out to get the attention of their volleyball idols. I admit, I also shouted!

Raffle draws, dancing competition and a lot more of raffle draws were done to also make the fans happy. There were winners of pre-signed tshirts as well items and the best would have been the meet and greet with the players after the match. Unfortunately, I know I am already a loser when we talk about raffle draws and I already accepted defeat. I am happy for those who had won.

Alyssa looking for the dance contest participants.

But aside from Alyssa, I am also a fan of the Ateneo Lady Eagles in general. I was glad to see Ponggay Gaston, Maddie Madayag and the entire team. However, I missed Bea de Leon as her flight was delayed, we didn't saw her in action that day. The next day on Sunday however, she was present and I was not able to watch the second day event.

After their warm up, the game officially started. The first two sets were all in favor of the Creamline Cool Smashers where Alyssa is the team captain. Together with my favorite setter, Jia Morado, they both had overpowered the Lady Eagles but came set three and four, the Ateneo Lady Eagles were able to gear up and put a good fight and eventually winning the next two sets.

Time out time for the Lady Eagles

The fifth set of course is a fast game because scoring wise, it will only up to 15 points compared to the rest of the four other sets where a team should get 25 points to win the sets.

It was a bit of a tight match but for me it looked like the Creamline Cool Smashers were having lots of errors which had caused them real damage. Eventually, Ateneo Lady Eagles won the match with a good hit from Gequillana, a new player who is a sister of Kim Gequillana, the team's service specialist but has been injured during a play a few months ago. I believe she is currently recovering from that event.

Here's a sample play by Jia and Alyssa where the later won a point!

After the match of course everyone attempted to get near the players. I however got the chance to take photos from a far using the camera. My husband James was very supportive too that he went extra mile to take a closer photo.

Here's one where Alyssa looked like crying:

Alyssa seemed crying.

It took some time for the players to get to the dug out because of the fans but good thing that there were no extreme things that had happened while the fans were very eager to get there them. Thank good ness for the guards and attenders who were alert and strong enough to guard the players. You know how fans act sometimes just to get what they want.

That summarizes my blog entry for tonight.

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