Ateneo lands top recruits for volleyball wars
Ateneo women’s volleyball team coach Oliver Almadro is looking forward to more productive training for the next UAAP season.
Almadro said the Lady Eagles have been mixing online team and individual training at home due to restrictions brought by the pandemic.
“As a team, we are training both synchronously and asynchronously online,” he said.
“We keep ourselves fit with programs for our physical fitness.”
Collegiate athletes will soon be allowed to practice upon the completion of training guidelines, but for now they have to make do with the situation.
Prior to the pandemic, the team spends its preseason training in a camp in Japan.
Right now, Almadro is focused on keeping his athletes physically and mentally fit. He said they keep themselves updated online as much as possible.
“It is also important for us to focus on their mental health right now. We look for ways to talk about it and have relevant sessions regarding these,” he said.
The team is welcoming a group of tall, promising rookies in its bid to follow up its Season 81 crown before the pandemic cancelled Season 82 last February.
The recruits are composed of Alexis Miner (5-foot-11), Sofia Ildefonso (5’11”), Lyann De Guzman (5’10”), Katrina Blanco (5’10”), Jana Cane (5’9”), Jennifer Delos Santos (5’9”) and Takako Fujimoto (5’4”).
Miner won Season 81’s Second Bed Middle Blocker and Season 82 First Best Middle Blocker, while De Guzman is an opposite hitter and member of the Philippine U-23 squad that won silver in the 11th ASEAN School Games.
Both are from the Far Eastern University girls’ volleyball team.
Delos Santos, another opposite hitter from Ateneo de Cebu University, is the First Best Outside Hitter in the 2019 CESAFI, even as Sofia Ildefonso, daughter of PBA star Danny Ildefonso, comes from champion team National University-Nazareth School.
Fujimoto, Blanco and Cane are recruits from Ateneo de Davao University.