The UST Dream Team that Remained a Dream

This "dream team" is definitely one of the biggest "What if" scenarios in Philippine women's volleyball as it would have changed how we view the women's volleyball competition especially in the University Athletic Association of the Philippines (UAAP).

What Alyssa Valdez is to the Ateneo Lady Eagles is the same thing that the Santiago sisters in Jaja and Dindin are to the National University (NU) Lady Bulldogs: they were the faces of their school's volleyball program who made their respective teams relevantly again. Of course, Valdez, known as the Lady Eagles' "Phenom", led Ateneo to a pair of championships including the one in Season 77 when they swept the entire season. On the other side, the Santiago sisters were one of the reasons why the NU Lady Bulldogs remained a consistent Final Four team in the UAAP even though they haven't won a championship with the sisters spiking the ball left and right. As they say it, it wasn't meant to be. 

And speaking of "not meant to be" things, the University of Santo Tomas Golden Tigresses could have gotten a super team had things gone their way. Some pundits even dared to say that UST could have won multiple championships in the last decade had they were able to retain that high school team in college.

Imagine a UST side that would have been led by a core that included Alyssa Valdez, the Santiago siblings, and yes, Kim Fajardo who played an important role in the back-to-back championships of the De La Salle Lady Spikers from Season 78 to Season 79.

Yes, volleyball fans of today: Valdez, the Santiago duo, and Fajardo all played together in high school for UST under Coach Francis Vicente who first saw Valdez and Fajardo whom the coach described as "unpolished gems" at that time, play for Calabarzon in the 2005 Palarong Pambansa. Vicente then added that it was around the same time when he was approached by an uncle of the Santiago sisters who said that his nieces wanted to play high school volleyball.  UST was able to get the services of all four young talented volleyball players and it didn't take long before they could bear the fruits of that recruitment as in Season 69 of the UAAP, Valdez would wound up winning the Rookie of the Year plum and in the succeeding season, Valdez teamed up with Kim Fajardo as they won three consecutive high school championships for UST and by Season 72 of the UAAP, Valdez has already won a Most Valuable Player award that was coupled by a Best Attacker award while Jaja Santiago just nabbed the Rookie of the Year award and Fajardo took home the Best Setter award. And on top of the awards, UST high school team had just completed another championship run. Dindin Santiago-Manabat won three championships for UST high school as well before she and Jaja transferred to NU to follow Coach Vicente. 

According to volleyball experts in the UAAP, had the dream team been retained in college, UST would have dominated the UAAP women's volleyball and that would have allowed Valdez, Fajardo, and Dindin Santiago-Manabat to play alongside Ria Meneses and that team would have a better chance against the Ramil de Jesus-coached Lady Spikers whom UST lost to in the UAAP Finals back then and to make the dream team better, Valdez, Fajardo, and Jaja Santiago would have sustained UST's dominance even after the graduation of Santiago-Manabat as they would have been joined by EJ Laure and Sisi Rondina.  And considering how Rondina was able to lead the Golden Tigresses back to the finals last year before ultimately losing to the Lady Eagles, we cannot blame UST faithful for contemplating on that "what ifs" as we cannot take away what difference having Valdez and company as teammates would have made to the Rodina-led UST team. 

As dominant as the Golden Tigresses would have been with Valdez and company roaring on the court, things would have been different in the women's volleyball had that team was retained in college. And as painful as it would sound, not all dreams are meant to come true. It's what they say, "It's not meant to be"

Photo is from Volleyverse