ANGEL Canino remained a student of the sport, even when on break from Alas Pilipinas duties and still months away from returning to the UAAP with La Salle.
Canino joined her national team cohorts at the sidelines of the 2025 FIVB Volleyball Men’s World Championship finale, as part of a record 16,429-strong crowd for Italy and Bulgaria’s gold medal bout.
For the former UAAP rookie-MVP, one team stood out among the 32 that competed the in the tournament’s biggest edition yet.
Runner-up Bulgaria had a dream run for the ages, as it brought home the country’s first FIVB Worlds silver medal in 55 years.
Watching such a dream run for the youngest team in the tournament with an average age of 23 years old wasn’t just inspiring for Canino.
It was also very relatable, as the Lady Spikers' skipper has been at the forefront of young teams, both in the collegiate and international levels.
“’Yung Bulgaria kasi siyempre, batang team. Ngayon lang din sila naka-step up po talaga nang todo-todo sa World Championship,” Canino shared with SPIN.ph.
“Kaming mga Alas Pilipinas went through that. Comparing to us, kaming women’s, nag-go through na rin kami du’n na mga bata kasama.
“To connect with it, kaya ako rooting for Bulgaria kasi nakikita rin namin ‘yung puso nilang lumaban ngayong World Championship. Nakikita namin na hindi talaga sila bumibitaw.”
‘Cani-kolov?’
May it be live or remotely, Canino has been paying close attention to one Bulgarian star in particular who emerged as the FIVB Worlds' best outside spiker.
Watching 21-year-old, 6-foot-9 winger Aleks Nikolov scale the world stage left a fellow outside spiker in Canino in awe, as she looks to take a few pages off his playbook and adopt it to her own game.
In his first taste of FIVB Worlds action, Nikolov rose to the occasion as the top scorer of the tournament with 173 points (24.71 points per game) on 53.29 percent attacking success rate. That's 67 points clear of the next leading scorer in Belgium's Ferre Reggers,
“Si Aleks Nikolov, malakas siyang pumalo talaga. Hindi lang sa palo, kundi ‘yung depensa niya,” Canino said of Nikolov, who is just one year younger than her.
“Gusto ko siyang gayahin, the way siyang pumalo, the way siyang gumalaw, kasi gusto ko pang i-improve ‘yung maraming bagay sa sarili ko.
“May makikita ako sa kanya na pwede kong gawin despite sa gender [difference] na siyempre, lalaki siya, pero gusto ko rin na i-achieve ‘yung ganung bilis kahit matangkad sila.”
READ: How Alas Women can qualify for 2027 FIVB Worlds before 2029 hosting
Like Nikolov, Canino and the rest of Alas will take on the world’s best on home soil for only the second time ever in the Philippine-hosted 2029 FIVB Volleyball Women’s World Championship.
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