It is, after all, National University.

And as much as Sherwin Meneses wants to keep his wards’ focus on improving with every passing game, every time the Lady Bulldogs string together a number of wins, talk of a streak will always evolve into something grander.

Bella Belen, the team’s star hitter, understands why.

“No one wants to go into a stepladder. [All our opponents] want to beat us and so the biggest challenge is how we can be consistent because there’s still a lot of games left to play and a lot more can happen,” she said.

The stepladder rule is activated every time a team sweeps its 14 elimination round assignments.

The 14-0 squad advances automatically to the championship series while the other three Final Four qualifiers go through a stepladder elimination phase where the third and fourth seeds collide and the winner advances to duke it out with the No. 2 team. The survivor of that battle faces the outright finalist for the crown.

The Lady Bulldogs aren’t even halfway to 14-0, winning their fifth straight game after hammering University of the Philippines, 25-13, 25-23, 25-22.

And that is perhaps why Meneses, who was signed to handle the team this season, doesn’t want his players focusing on the streak too much.

“It’s not about the win streak,” Meneses said. “It’s about [finding out] up to where you can improve and persevere in training. That’s where we focus on and not on the winning streak.”

But the rest of the field has history as a warning.

The Lady Bulldogs have done this before and in their current run, they look as dominating as they did when they swept their way to the crown in Season 84, when they ended a 65-year title drought.

Adamson duel

The next team up for NU is rising program Adamson before the defending champion takes on the team they faced in last season’s finals, University of Santo Tomas.

Against the Lady Falcons, the Lady Bulldogs will face a young talent whose prowess fetches memories of Belen’s dominant rookie year.

Shaina Nitura, the goggles-sporting hitter who is already one of the league’s best scorers, has wowed observers with her talent and maturity.

Belen has certainly taken notice, although she hopes Nitura will take things slowly and acclimatize herself to the more competitive college game.

“[Nitura] is still a rookie so I think she doesn’t need to pressure herself. She’s still young and it’s her first time in the UAAP collegiate [level]. She can still learn a lot because there’s a huge difference in college and high school,” Belen, who as a freshman won the MVP award, said.

Nitura will command a lot of attention from the NU defense, but Meneses made it clear that he won’t be focusing on just one player.

“Teamwork will still win a game,” the champion coach said ahead of NU’s Wednesday battle against his alma mater. “We’ll prepare well for Adamson. As for Nitura, she really has potential.” INQ