Lady Spikers vs Lady Bulldogs in UAAP Season 88 Last Dance

All roads lead to the Mall of Asia Arena on Wednesday

Games on Wednesday
(SM Mall of Asia Arena)
Noon  – FEU vs NU (Men’s Finals)
5 p.m. – DLSU vs NU (Women’s Finals)

DYNASTY VERSUS REDEMPTION. Three peat against perfection.

All roads lead to the Mall of Asia Arena on Wednesday as modern rivals National University (NU) and De La Salle University meet again with stakes of epic proportions in the Last Dance of the UAAP Season 88 women’s volleyball finals.

Hostilities erupt at 5 p.m. for Game 1 of the best-of-three finals after an also explosive men’s finals rematch of five-peat champion NU Bulldogs and the top-ranked Far Eastern University Tamaraws at noon.

But all eyes are on the Lady Bulldogs and the Lady Spikers, who will lock horns for the fourth time in the past five seasons as the undisputed biggest and hottest collegiate volleyball rivalry in the country today.

And both have noble goals up for the taking after coming off contrasting paths to get here.

La Salle, which managed to win only once against NU in their previous three title encounters, was unforgiving in its revenge tour by sweeping the two-round eliminations, 14-0, to clinch an outright finals berth.

The Lady Spikers’ wipeout turned the traditional Final Four format to a stepladder one, denying the second-seeded Lady Bulldogs a twice-to-beat incentive and dragging it to the survival of the fittest with No. 3 Adamson University and No. 4 University of Santo Tomas (UST).

But more than an attempt of thwarting NU’s three-peat, La Salle is out to exorcise the ghost of its past after a foiled four-peat bid of its own back in Season 76 — for redemption and vindication.

La Salle last swept the UAAP in 2014 for then league format of thrice-to-beat bonus in the finals only to lose three times against the phenom Alyssa Valdez, which willed Ateneo de Manila University to its first-ever title.

La Salle, in its 21^st finals appearance with 13^th title in mind under the wizardry of legendary mentor Ramil de Jesus, is hoping for a different result this time around led by star captain Shevana Laput and former Rookie-MVP Angel Canino.

The Taft-based spikers last time around faced an emerging force in Ateneo en route to the fall of their dynasty. It’s a stark contrast now against the NU queendom, albeit with a relatively younger core following the graduation of old knights Bella Belen, Alyssa Solomon and company.

And new mentor Regine Diego, who’s a former player herself of Mr. de Jesus in La Salle in the 2000s, is hoping for it to be enough in defending the realm.

“It’s always about discipline with coach Ramil (de Jesus) and hopefully, I can out-discipline him,” vowed Ms. Diego, banking on team captain Vange Alinsug and Lams Lamina as the only remnants of NU’s championship core alongside rising star Arah Panique and super rookie Sam Cantada.

Unlike the Lady Spikers who had a two-week break with an automatic finals passage, the Lady Bulldogs will ride on the momentum despite a shorter preparation after surviving the UST Golden Tigresses in the knockout Final Four, 20-25, 26-24, 26-24, 25-21, last weekend.

NU was the last team to complete a 16-0 UAAP sweep in 2022 with Ms. Belen leading the way, and Ms. Diego is upbeat in keeping that feat in Jhocson while gunning to extend the school’s mastery for their fourth title in the last five seasons. — John Bryan Ulanday