Sunday, December 06, 2015

The last week in sports

Major props and congratulations to Andy Murray for leading Great Britain to win the Davis Cup for the first time since 1936. He won all his Davis Cup matches this year, including the doubles matches he competed in. Andy now has a Wimbledon title, a US Open trophy, an Olympic Gold, and a Davis Cup. That's a pretty remarkable set of achievements for someone competing in the era of Federer, Nadal, and Djokovic. (Interesting that the Big Four have now all won the Davis Cup.)

*****

Congratulations to FEU for winning the Season 78 UAAP Basketball tournament. The final went the distance, with FEU winning the first game and UST winning the second game before FEU took it home in the do-or-die third game. I was rooting for UST since they were so close to winning two years ago but it wasn't meant to be. I have learned that

*****

The most recent Philippine SuperLiga competition just concluded and the result was a pretty stellar upset: Foton Tornadoes took home the trophy. They not only beat defending two-time SuperLiga champions Petron Blaze Spikers twice in the best of three final, they also shocked top seed Phillips Gold Lady Slammers in the semifinals in a tightly contested 5-set match. This was arguably the most closely contested Super Liga with all top four teams having the skills and weapons to beat each other (which they did). I am happy that Foton won since they were underdogs going into the semifinals. During the tournament, however, I was rooting for the MERALCO Power Spikers who ended up 5th place; I do think if they had stronger imports they could have competed harder with the top four.

*****

As if one local volleyball tournament wasn't enough, the Shakey's V League also concluded a day after the Super Liga finals, with PLDT toppling Philippine Army in the finals to take the trophy. Too bad for me because I wanted Army to win, what with volleyball legends Tina Salak and Mary Jean Balse retiring soon. My favorite thing about this tournament: UP wins third place! UP had always been at or close to the bottom of the UAAP but with this third place finish, I am hoping that they can do better in the upcoming UAAP volleyball season.

No comments: