Alyssa Solomon (right) is working her way to top form. UAAP MEDIA.
National University continues to stay where many expected it to be at this point in the UAAP Season 87 women’s volleyball tournament: on top.
The Lady Bulldogs have racked up 11 wins against just two losses, well ahead of La Salle (8-4), Santo Tomas (8-4), and Far Eastern (8-5) in the standings. With that, they’ve secured a twice-to-beat incentive in the Final Four—a familiar bonus for a program that has steadily built a winning pedigree.
But while NU is again in control of its playoff fate, the armor of invincibility it flaunted last season has shown some dings.
The Lady Bulldogs were stunned twice by lower-ranked squads—first in a five-set thriller against host University of the Philippines last month, then again earlier this month by a surging Adamson side led by rookie sensation Shaina Nitura. Those setbacks served as reminders that NU, though still formidable, is no longer the juggernaut many feared.
‘Still hurts’
“We talked about how we don’t want what happened before to ever happen again,” said team captain and reigning MVP Bella Belen in Filipino. “We have to do what we’re supposed to do. Regardless of whoever we are playing, we have to keep doing what we are supposed to be doing.”
“We should be dictating the game. If we really want to win, we should work doubly hard, and not just wait for the other team to hand us the points,” she added.
That was exactly what NU did against Ateneo, when the Lady Bulldogs swept the Lady Eagles for that coveted playoff incentive and, more importantly, push the reset button.
“The (tournament’s) winding down,” said head coach Sherwin Meneses, just days removed from a Finals loss with Creamline in the pros. “So we’ll be able to focus so much going into the semifinals. And that’s really what’s important here, the final stretch.”
Such an approach will be key, especially with Alyssa Solomon still coping with the ankle discomfort that shelved her for a couple of games, including in the loss to Nitura and the Lady Falcons.
“There are times when it still hurts, but it’s manageable,” Solomon, last season’s Finals Most Valuable Player, said. “We’ll use this break to really polish our movements before we face UST.”
Counting Monday, NU is currently on a two-week break before its April 27 showdown with UST. And while the Lady Bulldogs have been dominating their upcoming opponents since their Season 86 title duel, they know that the Golden Tigresses are looking less and less like the squad they have dismantled in the past.
“We’ll be more detailed in training,” Belen said. “The break’s a bit long, so we’ll have a chance to study how UST plays since they still have a game on Wednesday.”
The Lady Bulldogs continue to be on top of the heap, but Belen knows that staying there, having been in this predicament before, takes more than sheer talent.
Striving for excellence helps.
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“We’ll look at the things we can perfect in training so when the time comes that we play UST, we will have great results.” INQ
