I was not sporty and I have not joined any kind of sport game ever since. I have been afraid of any kinds of ball from basketball, volleyball, tennis ball and whatever game ball that is, you name it, I am definitely afraid of them. However, I had started to like watching and following a sport since I was able to watch the UAAP volleyball game of Ateneo and De Lasalle university.
Actually,it was because of a certain player who had interested me in the said sport. Her name is Alyssa Valdez. She was a player who smiles in everything that she does. Whenever she is spiking, when she scores, she smiles, when she gets an error, she smiles and that she was definitely humble throughout the entire game.
I had looked her profile in the internet and found these information:
Alyssa Valdez is a Filipino collegiate volleyball player. She is currently a member of the Ateneo de Manila University's collegiate women's varsity volleyball team, in both indoor and beach volleyball, and Philippines Women's Volleyball Team.
Alyssa became popular nationwide when she started to play for the Ateneo Lady Eagles. Valdez is one of the most followed volleyballs in social media, thus making her one of the sought after endorsers for sports products, gears, and drinks. She also covered on some of the famous sports and entertainment magazines in the country and appeared on television as a guest in variety and talk shows or a participant in game shows.
Valdez is the reigning Season's MVP of UAAP, and the reigning Conference MVP of both Shakey's V-League Open and Collegiate conferences.
And I had noticed her audience impact, she has I guess the most number of fans in the entire crowd. I didn't actually noticed it but I had began watching her games since then. I became a fan too and I can't deny it because I am always checking her game schedules for live streaming or replay if I was unable to watch it live.
But it was really the UAAP games which had exposed me of who she was and how she plays her game. So let's me share her background as an athlete.
Alyssa Valdez is a local of Batangas, her father works as a car dealer and her mom is a housewife. She has four brothers and yes she is the only daughter. She began to play volleyball when she was young when one of her brothers hit her with a volleyball. Her athletic skills then started at that time and so she had then pursued the sport.
She studied in US for her secondary school and had joined the young Lady Tigresses. She somehow started to earn good reputation while in the specific school.
Alyssa as the flag bearer during the recent 2015 SEA Games.
Watch the Athletes' March where Alyssa held the Philippine Flag:
Video highlights during the SEA Games between Philippines and Malaysia:
Video highlights during the SEA Games between Philippines and Vietnam:Video highlights during the SEA Games between Philippines and China:
She transferred to Ateneo De Manila University when reaching college and she took AB Psychology. She also then joined the Lady Eagles and had been included in the first six players for the team in their collegiate games. She was immediately known for her extra great power spikes which has given her the title of "Bagyong Baldo".Some photos with her team mates:
From left to right: Alyssa, Gretchen Ho, Fille Cainglet-Cayetano, Dzi and Denden Lazaro
She was also in her freshmen year when I started to watch her game and because she was humble but very good in playing, I instantly become a fan together with some of my colleagues. We would watch her games together at home and even in the office when I was still working in a call center.
Back when she was still in her first year, the team would face a strong team of De Lasalle University Lady Archers. She normally scores a big number of points in other games but whenever their opponent is Lasalle, she would be able to score few points only because the team had been eyeing her and defending her very well. That I guess was also the reason why I had been very fanatic of the UAAP Women's Volleyball games.
However, when Alyssa reached her junior year and she had new team mates who are helping her with earning points in the court, they had finally earned their first championship title. They had miraculously stepped up a ladder. They had won against the twice to beat National University to get to the championship and had won three times against LaSalle who had the thrice to beat advantage. They were a young team considering that most of her team mates were actually rookies. But together with new team mates, they also had a new team coach who was an import from Thailand, he is known as Coach Tai.
Coach Tai, although can't speak much English has been good with coaching the team. As per Alyssa, the coach is strict in training but was really good and jolly during the games. He had given the team strategies and brave hearts. Ateneo had then started with the famous line "Heart Strong" which Coach Tai would always remind them when they have hard games.
Again in Alyssa ' Senior year, they had gained their second championship title again against LaSalle and she was named the UAAP Women's Volleyball Most Valuable Player 2015.
Aside from indoor volleyball, she also plays the other one which is beach volleyball. 
A new challenge and opportunity for learning as well for Alyssa was when she was able to join the team who represented the Philippines in the last Southeast Asian Games. She also had played good during their games in Singapore and although they had lost, she had been very vocal saying that she had learned a lot during the game.
Alyssa had become one of the sought after endorsers for sports products, gears, and drinks. She also covered on some of the famous sports and entertainment magazines in the country. Here are some of the magazines which she appeared in the cover photo:
Here's her commercial videos:
But the end of her relationship has become a medium for her to find a new one in the name of Kiefer Ravena. He is a basketball member of the Ateneo Blue eagle. So Alyssa and Kiefer had known each other for quite sometime since they are in the same school. But it was only this year as well that Kiefer had expressed his feeli for Alyssa.
Both of them had also been featured in the specific segment of Digital5 which is called Originals and it is their episodes are called Phenoms. Here are some of their videos:
That was with Kiefer and the episode was a bonus footage on the questions that their fans had posted on their social media accounts and they had answered them. Now Alyssa was challenged for Make up: Now that a new season of the UAAP is ongoing again, I can't wait for the upcoming games between the schools joining this collegiate league.There will be more and more videos of Alyssa's amazing spikes and of course I will be watching those each and every game of the Ateneo Lady Eagles. Below are some of the highlights of Alyssa Valdez' games from the previous UAAP Seasons.
So that should be all and I am looking forward to watching her games again in the upcoming UAAP volleyball games soon.Check out my other blog entries:
