NATIONAL University is two wins away from a treble of UAAP women’s volleyball championships in the last four seasons.
The magnitude of such a feat, if the Lady Bulldogs were to pull it off, is immense when taking into account how the Jhocson side had to wait 65 years before winning it again in Season 84.
READ: National U-La Salle UAAP title trilogy by the numbers
To complete the golden hat-trick, National U will be up against a La Salle team it already beat once for the title three years ago but also a La Salle team it lost to upon defending that crown in Season 85.
But this time in Season 87, led by the PVL's winningest coach and seven-time champion in Sherwin Meneses, this championship might just be NU’s to lose.
Here’s why.
Ruling the (NU)mbers game
If we were to look back at the numbers, National U has the upper hand in almost every department.
Its league-best 12-2 prelims record marked the third time in the last four seasons that they hit the 12-win mark to top prelims play.
NU won the championship in the two prior occasions.
And of the six skill areas, the defending champions led the league this season in four of them.
Led by MVP frontrunner Bella Belen and two-time best opposite hitter Alyssa Solomon, NU is the league’s top attacking team once more.
The Lady Bulldogs fired a total of 829 attack points in the elimination round, yielding a 35.84 percent spiking success rate.
Also, it was NU’s graduating power duo in Belen (37.63 percent) and Solomon (37.13 percent) who finished one and two in the spiking department.
They also have two non-scoring fields on lock as National U also bested the rest of the league in setting (6.17 excellent sets per set) and receiving (39.79 percent efficiency).
Taking the wheel on those fronts are former best setter Lams Lamina (5.33 sets per set) and Belen as the league-leading non-libero in receptions (third overall; 43.02 percent efficiency) along with Shaira Jardio (fifth; 42.71 percent efficiency).
In terms of digging, the National U duo traded places with Jardio in third (3.66 digs per set) and Belen in fifth (2.79 digs per set).
Belen (0.52 aces per set) and the Lady Bulldogs (1.57 aces per set) also emerged atop the individual and team rankings in serving.
Fighting for a fitting farewell
National U’s sheer dominance over the last four years is a given.
But this Season 87 run, more than any other they’ve had in recent years, has a touch of added weight and purpose to it.
By season’s end, a quartet of homegrown Lady Bulldogs seniors in Belen, Solomon, Erin Pangilinan and Sheena Toring could all call it quits in their UAAP careers.
The former duo confirmed their impending exits before Season 87 began while the latter pair have yet to reveal their future plans.
All four of the aforementioned National U stars played part in the school’s steady rise from the juniors to the college ranks.
And after blazing a trail of dominance with National University-Nazareth School (NUNS), Belen & Co. brought that winning NUNS magic straight to the big stage by completing a 16-game Season 84 tournament sweep to win National U’s first college volleyball crown in 65 years.
As such, an already-masterful Lady Bulldogs side playing with added purpose to send National U’s seniors off on a high might just be the extra fuel that could spell the difference in this championship trilogy.
Outside the departing quartet, the likes of Lamina, Alexa Mata, Chams Maaya and ace junior winger Vange Alinsug among many others are out to extend their newfound culture of success to cement their status as a sporting dynasty in the making — one that would have to come at the expense of a longstanding dynasty in the Lady Spikers.
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