“It was like playing in Matute”: The story behind the Alianza champion of the National Volleyball League told by its heroines

“It was like playing in Matute”, an excited Esmeralda Sánchez tells us in the middle of the celebration, after falling to the floor on her knees to hug Maricarme Guerrero after the final point. He carries the Alliance shield embedded in his heart, which is why he does not hesitate to dive face first to save a ball, just as he did not hesitate to leave in those years when the volleyball team had nowhere to train and they did so on a synthetic field. She arrived from Iquitos ten years ago, sheltered by former coach Carlos Aparicio, with one dream: to be a champion with Alianza, the club she loves, and to be captain. Yesterday she achieved it. That’s why she hugs the trophy and doesn’t want to let go. She even makes a gesture of wanting to take him home. The fan celebrates those gestures, she applauds her for being the captain of the team, the one who encourages her teammates on the field. She has entered the history of her Alliance, she knows it, she is aware of it and cries with joy. “I don’t care about anything anymore, I don’t care about anything anymore,” she repeats with a smile from ear to ear.

A few meters from Esmeralda is Aixa Vigil, who cannot stop his tears. She hugs Maeva Orlé, thanks her and looks at the sky. She, as well as the captain, survived the three lost finals in a row. But she never stopped fighting, not even when she was injured for three months, much less after the first game they lost. She played, as she tells us, with some fear of relapse of her injury, which is why she wore bandages on her right shoulder – her blessed right shoulder that allowed her to make that final dunk for the title point. -. she, she tells the cameras. “Today, in the morning, I told my mother that we would be champions”Add.

Maeva Orlé and Clarivett Yllescas They do not separate for a single moment. Clarivett is not only his translator, she is his girlfriend. And he doesn’t stop hugging her, congratulating her for being chosen as the best player in the tournament. In September of last year, Maeva decided to leave her native France to come to Peru for Clarivett, who had everything closed to play in Regattas. One day before she signed for the Chorrilla club, Cenaida Uribe, head of the Alliance volleyball team, called her and proposed hiring both of them. They accepted without thinking. They complement each other on and off the field. If Orlé always asks for long sets for his powerful mate, Yllescas almost always chooses “the lame one” as his move or invents some pirouette to get the crowd going. It is their first title together and they do not hesitate to celebrate it. They sign autographs, take photos and speak to the press. They kiss and celebrate that love also triumphed in the Sports Center.

Marina Scherer She was chosen as the best setter of the competition. When she went to receive the award from her, behind her, a few meters from her, her sister Simone, the San Martín attacker, couldn’t stop crying. She has lost the final, but her blood is stronger. She is watching her sister succeed. Both Brazilians, Marina is the calm of the team. When Esmeralda jumps, screams and asks for breath, she puts her fingers to her head to tell her classmates “we have to think.” When the fan gets impatient, she asks for peace of mind. “We did it for our people,” she says and recognizes the blue and white fans who went to Matute at noon on this historic Sunday to say goodbye to them before their journey to the Sports Center begins. The flag didn’t surprise them, but it did move them. If they needed one last incentive, this was it. They went out to kill from the first point. And Marina was crucial: in the assembly, in the blocking and in some defenses in which she was almost always well positioned.

In the eyes of Ysabella Sanchez There was a thirst for revenge. He was the one who was most shocked by what happened in the first final, after the victory of the Saint team and the fight that ended with the punishment of Professor Rafael Petry. With the right sleeve of his polo rolled up, ‘Chabelita’ only had one goal: defeat his rival. He showed it in every dunk, every celebration. And in the tears that he shed after the final. One of the most loved by the fans, she raised his performance in the finals, as well as Maricarmen Guerrero. Both are just as important as the others. The two who looked at each other from time to time to wonder if what they were experiencing was real, if they had really become national champions.

Behind them is the teacher Gaspar Vicuna, the “spokesman of the technical command.” He was chosen to command after Petry’s suspension. And some crucial points rest on it, especially on the serve. He was always talking to the player whose turn it was to serve, seeing where he should send the ball. The fan in the coliseum chants the name of Rafael Petry, but does not stop applauding the work of Vicuña, the coach of the last two finals, of the two blue and white triumphs.

The Sports Center was Matute for one night. Dressed in blue and white, with the “Heart Alianza Lima…” intoned at every moment and with the encouragement of that number seven player who has been fundamental in this consecration, on this historic night for the history of Club Alianza Lima.