The Stands: An INQUIRER Sports Newsletter

 

May 3, 2024

Savi Davison and her PLDT teammates missed out on a semifinal appearance by a single point. (PVL IMAGES)

Hey there sports fan, It has been a week of significant numbers in sports. There's the most talked-about 51 points in basketball in a long while. There is the three-point record chase, which is littered with numerical trivia (Like, do you know who is No. 3 on the all-time list of three-pointers made? Answer below). There's lucky 13. There's even the "Death Five." Perhaps the most defining numbers in sports the past week were the ones that popped up alongside the win-loss records of teams in the Premier Volleyball League and the UAAP women's volleyball tournament. It's the points system that was used to break ties in those two tournaments. And boy, did those points make a difference. Ask PLDT coach Rald Ricafort. His team tied Creamline at fourth and fifth places in the ongoing PVL All-Filipino Cup, but the team lost out on the chase for the last semifinals ticket by a single point, 24-23.  Understand that the High Speed Hitters didn't even need to convert any of their three losses to wins to earn the needed points to boot out the defending champions. Had they forced deciding sets in defeats to Chery Tiggo and Cignal toward the tailend of their preliminaries calendar, they would have made the Last 4. Same goes for the UAAP. National U and season surprise package University of Santo Tomas fnished with identical 12-2 (win-loss) records and traditionally, UST would have gotten the top seed because it defeated NU in three sets while the Lady Bulldogs' win over the Tigresses in their next encounter lasted four sets. But because the points system was applied, NU finished at No. 1 and UST dropped to No. 2. The significance? The difference in positions meant the Tigresses will have to battle defending champion La Salle in the semifinals, albeit with twice-to-beat protection, while NU gets to take on No. 4 Far Eastern U,

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San Miguel Beer continues to roll in the Philippine Cup.  (PBA IMAGES)

Meanwhile... This will most likely fly under the radar, but here's an interesting read on a low-key volleyball squad winning the national championship for boys. Also, San Miguel Beer is gunning for a perfect finish in the PBA Philippine Cup elimination round, but no matter who you talk to, no one is counting streaks within the Beermen camp. No one's counting milestones, either. Ask Jorge Gallent. Or Marcio Lassiter. The Beermen have been rolling in the all-Filipino tournament but talk to Chris Ross and he'll be the first to say his team has another gear they can shift to when the playoffs comes around. What we're up to next: We will be covering the PBA playoffs chase, which is now in its tailend, and continue covering the single-round semifinals of the PVL. We'll also be going full blast on our UAAP Season 86 women's volleyball tournament and hope that you will get your fix of varsity action from us, across all our platforms. Number of the Week: 14 In ounces, that's how heavy the gloves that Mike Tyson and Jake Paul will use in their bout weigh. Traditionally, boxing gloves weight 10 ounces. The heavier the gloves will reduce the power of punches.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK “Solving a Rubik’s Cube calms us.” —National U star ALyssa Solomon on how the Lady Bulldogs spend their evenings after they surrender their phones to their coaches.

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LA Tenorio. That's the answer to the trivia question above. Think you can ace the rest of the quiz? head over to our Viber community and try the test out! Buy the Inquirer at newsstands, subscribe to our digital edition, Inquirer Plus, visit our online site and follow us on socials (Twitter: @inquirersports; FB: facebook.com/inquirersports) for more stories and updates—or to send us questions or suggestions of stories you'd want to read. See you next Friday! Francis Francis T. J. Ochoa is the Sports Editor of the Philippine Daily Inquirer. For comments, suggestions and questions, hit him up on Twitter (@ftjochoaINQ).