Cheerleader on the sidelines

ONE OF UST’s best volleybelles is also its top cheerleader.

The contributions of 20-year-old Angeli Tabaquero are not limited to her killer plays. They’re palpable also whenever she gives teammates—exhausted and probably disheartened—that extra push only a veteran spiker like her could provide.

Images of Tabaquero running (actually jumping) all around the court after a successful rally have become quite common in UAAP replays.

“It’s a big factor that Angeli has her high spirits inside the court,” said coach Cesael Delos Santos. “As a senior player, she helps the team to relax and enjoy the game.”

Tabaquero commands respect and solicits admiration mainly through her many achievements as a member of the school’s female volleyball team.

A consistent Best Player of the Game in UAAP and Shakeys V-league, the 5-foot-7 open spiker bagged the Best Server award in the 2008 Philippine Volleyball Federation Inter-Collegiate Volleyball tournament.

She was also part of the RP women’s volleyball team in 2006, alongside Thomasian siblings Mary Jean Balse and Cherry Anne Balse, teammates Denise Tan, Aiza Maizo, Ruby de Leon and Lilet Mabbayad.

Part of her success is attitude. Delos Santos sees her as a team player who follows instructions well and makes others around her better.

“Once you think you’re good, you’ll stop being good,” she said.

Tabaquero was discovered in 2005 by then coach August Sta. Maria during the National Capital Region Palaro, where her team represented Quezon City. She passed the UST tryouts with flying colors and immediately tapped to join Team A.

“I was really happy because after the tryouts and everything, we already joined a league in Baguio,” she said. “It was also a (rare opportunity) to be part of team A on your first year.”

But Tabaquero knows there’s life besides volleyball. That’s why she makes it a point never to take her education for granted. In the second semester of 2008, she took a break from the game and focused on her Communication Arts studies.

“Playing volleyball is just there, it will soon fade,” she said. “Whatever you learned in school, it will not vanish. It [education] will take you to whatever path you chose.

She added: “I stopped because my body was tired of what I was doing.”

In her years juggling volleyball with academics, she said had somehow gotten the “rhythm,” meaning one did not have to suffer because of the other.

Comeback

But soon, volleyball beckon and Tabaquero was back in the game.

Suiting up with UST in the second conference of V-league last year, she showed no game rust as though she never left the game. In fact, she led the team to victory against Far Eastern University in her comeback game in the semifinals and bagged the Best Player of the game award.

“At first I felt nervous, but I guess volleyball was in my system so I came back,” said Tabaquero, who began playing at 12 years old.

After her collegiate volleyball stint, she dreams of joining a commercial league, if not the RP team. She is also eyeing a sports science degree later on.

“I see myself taking care of [players] because I know what they feel,” she said.

Just recently, the UST Lady Spikers missed the leadership services of Tabaquero in the best-of-three finals of V-league after sustaining a left knee injury from a bad fall in first set of Game 1.