STI Volleyball Men's Team finally wins

JR Ponce serving

Height is something that Daniel Trinidad, a third year spiker out of STI College Taft was not blessed. But even though he lacked stature he surely made up for it with his big heart and determination to win. He is the only remnant of the STI College Team that started three seasons ago and his spunk and heart rubbed off on his team mate as he was a big part in the Olympians conquest over the University of Makati Hardy Herons. It was the first win of the Olympians in three years.

Amontos and Blazo block the Herons

The Olympians started slow mainly because some of their main guns arrived late. In the second set, the Hardy Herons erected a 17 - 10 lead and looked poised to take that set too. Unfortunately for them,spikers JR Ponce and John Amontos took turns in blocking the hits of the Herons and they themselves combined to give the surging Olympians the lead and eventually overtake the Herons to take the second set by a whisker 25 - 23.

Synchronized Jumping

The Hardy Herons battled back in the third set. They adjusted their attack since most of their spikes were blocked by the big men of the Olympians. Their gambled payed off as they yielded only a few points and got the Olympians mixed up who found it hard to react to the new set of offensive patterns of the Hardy Herons. The result was a third set win and a 2 - 1 lead by the Hardy herons.

JR Ponce shows his stuff

Volleyball is a total team effort and the Olympians finally showed their team effort as Trinidad pierced the net, Rezile Lazaro set up the big boys, Team Captain Rhestie Blazo started to click while Ponce, Amontos and Cleng Bascarra ignited a big run to capture the fourth set. The team also held their grown as their momentum carried them to a 15 - 11 fifth set win to give the Olympians breathing ground and more importantly the confidence as they battle their next two opponents.

Bascarra and Ponce solidify the STI wall

Finally the Olympians are not the whipping boys of the NAASCU Volleyball anymore and are set to improve on their previous stints as they finally nailed that ever elusive first win. The Olympians need to beat the CEU Scorpions and OLFU Phoenix in their next two assignments to make it to the semifinal round. They dropped their first game against last year's finalist, the San Sebastian College Cavite Baycats. Go STI.

16TH NYC in CEBU City

STI College Cebu Students

sing the Invocation hymn

STI College Cebu's Deputy School Administrator

Becky Ancheta welcomes the delegates

My Opening dance number

The Handsome Emcee

Microsoft's Robby Manubay

starts off the festivities

Ricky Bunag follows suit

Looking like an evangelist

Jet Nera caps off the convention

The Speakers give

their parting shots

STIers sing the STI Hymn

Queenie Padilla wows the crowd

16th NYC in Tacloban

The TACLOBAN ASTRODOME

STI College Tacloban Performers
interpret the Invocation Hymn

The hosts open the convention
with a peformance

Microsoft's Robby Manubay
Explains Microsoft Live@edu

Ricky Bunag was well applauded

Jet Nera shared great stories

STIers sing the STI Hymn

Queenie Padilla entertains
her partner

Queenie laughs at my joke

Olympians Team A beat newcomers

Olympians defense

It was a game reminiscent of many NAASCU conquests. Team A of the STI College Olympians prevailed over Rogationist College in the resumption of the Fr. Martin's Cup at the Arellano Gym. Led by 2009 NAASCU Mythical 5 selectee Jerald Bautista and quarterbacked by 2010 NAASCU Mythical 5 member Rama Krisna Morales, the Olympians pressure defense and impeccable offense went to work right away to secure the 98 - 69 win.

Ihalas scores on the fastbreak

The Olympians also saw good games from its junior players namely Macky Delorino, Wency Magampo and Arjay Napenas. Cameroonian Junior player Noel Ojandre finally suited up after recuperating from a foot injury. Among the junior players Napenas showed a lot of heart and spunk that showed that he is ready for the bigtime.

Mack Delorino hits the three

Veterans Maclean Sabellina, Bryan Daguplo and Norman Ihalas held their own in defense and scored when it mattered. Ihalas came up with timely steals and fastbreak points while Sabellina came up with block shots and rewarded himself with a break away dunk shot in the fourth quarter. Daguplo meanwhile defended the big guys well by boxing them out and creating opportunities for other Olympians to score as well.

Sabellina blocks the shot

The win boosted the confidence of the Olympians that dropped two games already. STI has two teams in the Father Martin's Cup with the objective of strengthening both the first team and the second team. Unfortunately the first team went to a tough bracket with some top UAAP teams. All we hope is that they become stronger after this tournament.

Maclean dunks the ball

Boxscores:

STI College (98)

Bautista 12, Morales 10, Napenas 10, Sabellina 10, Po 8, Alcantara 8, Silverie 8, Magampo 7, Ojandre 6, Ihalas 6, Daguplo 6, Delorino 5, Ortega 2

Rogationist (69) Melocio 25, Esteban 15, Macolita 10, Dirma 8, Delaserna 3 ,

16th NYC in BACOLOD

INVOCATION HYMN

interpreted by

the students of STI Bacolod

Welcoming the students

STI Bacolod School President

Francis Benedicto

The STI College Bacolod Dancers

Open the Convention

Yours truly

my opening dance number

Microsoft's Robby Manubay

address the STIers

Ricky Bunag stresses a point

Jet Nera wows the crowd

Dennis Evangelista arrived

in the afternoon

to the delight of

the Bacolod & Dumaguete students

Queenie Padilla

gave a great performance

16TH NYC in Iloilo

The Hosts of the 16th NYC
STI College Iloilo

Invocation Song

Welcome Remarks
by the School President
Mr. Francis Benedicto

STI College Iloilo Dancers
Open the Convention

Yours Truly Hosting the Show

Robby Manubay of Microsoft
was the First Speaker

Veteran NYC Speaker Ricky Bunag
was the second speaker

Former PSTD President Jet Nera
was the third speaker

The Beautiful Queenie Padilla
Wowed the crowd

The STI Students from
Antique, Barotac-Viejo,
Kalibo and Iloilo
Sing the STI Hymn

ABL 2011 Opening Weekend

Jun Castro scores

Blame it on the Holidays. Team Panlilio is in a new division with new foes and new heights to conquer. After winning it all last year in the Andres Francisco division, Team Panlilio was elevated to a new division and will be campaigning in the Oscar Sevilla Division. The Ateneo Basketball League opened on January 8, 2011 with most probably another banner number of teams joining. This just shows the love for basketball of Ateneans.

Gene Afable from the top of the key

Coming from a championship season is quite hard. As they say winning it the first time is a great achievement but winning it a second time is harder. The team composed of me and some classmates, Bong Berbano, Jerome Buhay, Deo Deomano, Bong Marquez, and some batch mates namely Buboy Go, Marvin Tiburcio and Tabs Tabora has been reinforced by other friends namely Dato Arroyo, Dino Ponce Enrile, Johann Ramos, Momoy Lopez, Jun Castro. This year we have also added some friends Alex Evangelista, Albert Mendoza and Gene Afable. Team mates Dennis Manalo and Peter Gonzalez begged off this year since they are still recuperating from their injuries. Both were vital cogs in last year’s run and will be sorely missed.

Buboy Go's Free Throw

Our first game had us fire blanks and were slow to get loose balls and cover the opponent’s shooters. Our opponent, Team Adolfo had three shooters lighting up the score board while our shots were rimming out. The first quarter had us lead by one 13-12 while they took the second quarter 23-24. By the third quarter their team pulled away and erected a ten point lead at the end of the third 28 -38. The inclusion of new team members plus the holiday bulge were big factors in giving up a 48 – 40 loss. Looking at the loss, you can say it was not that bad since we still held our opponents below 50 points but sputtered on offense.

Dato Arroyo on the drive

The road back to respectability is long and we will most probably take it a game at a time so that we will be able to get back to the same groove that got us on top. What is important is that we all shape up, get those outside shots, run the fastbreak and click as a team. As they say, we have done it before and we hope we can have the chance to do it all again. GO Team Panililio.

Team Panlilio vs. Team Adolfo