NU Bulldogs beats Ateneo to win 1st V-League title

The National University Bulldogs go with Rubie de Leon in the crucial moments of the game to ecked out a 25-23, 25-20, 17-25, 26-24 victory over defending champion Ateneo and win the Shakey’s V-League First Conference crown yesterday at the Philsports Arena.

De Leon was named the Finals MVP. She showed her veteran experience to help the Bulldogs to rally from a 22-24 deficit.

A service error by Lady Eagles setter Jem Ferrer and a down the line hit by Mina Aganon forced the game’s last deadlock at 24-24.

De Leon then caught Ateneo backline napping with a corner kill that allowed NU to move closer to championship point.

Dindin Santiago then closed out the game with a hit in the middle, as the Lady Bulldogs went to the court celebrating their first-ever championship in ages.

Prior to their first-ever V-League diadem, NU last won a major women’s volleyball title during the 1956-57 UAAP season.

Taking over from Francis Vicente two months ago, Mabbayad praised the 30-year-old De Leon for getting the job done.

Earlier, six-time champion University of Santo Tomas overcame the absence of Aiza Maizo to subdue Adamson, 25-18, 19-25, 25-19, 25-16, and clinch the bronze medal.

Dindin Santiago led the Lady Bulldogs with 17 points and four digs, De Leon had 13 hits, including three blocks, and Myla Pablo also had 13 points for NU.  In her final game as a Lady Bulldog, libero Jen Reyes collected 17 digs.

Alyssa Valdez paced the Lady Eagles with 16 hits, while Jeng Bualee and Rachel Daquis added 15 markers.

In the opening frame, back-to-back hits by Bualee gave Ateneo a 22-21 lead before Jaja Santiago and Pablo took over for NU to move within set point.

Pablo then atoned her attack fault in their recent rally with a soft touch hit for the Lady Bulldogs to close out the opening frame.

Continued what it left off in the first set, NU scored the first five points of the second frame.

But the Lady Bulldogs could not contain Bualee, as the Lady Eagles briefly took the driver’s seat, 18-17.

However, with Dindin and Jaja Santiago joining forces, NU regained the upper hand at 22-18 en route in taking a 2-0 set lead.

With their opponent’s poor delivery in reception, the Lady Bulldogs raced to a 7-1 third set lead.

With the setback, the Lady Eagles failed to give Ferrer and Fille Cainglet a grand sendoff to their collegiate careers.

Shakey's V-League Players

Liss Gohing is a five-time Champion libero with DLSU in the UAAP

St. Benilde's libero Rica Enclona meshed looks with abilities

Stephanie Gabriel was Ateneo's libero

Women’s volleyball Philippines

Philippines volleyball stars (from left): Angeli Tabaquero, Suzanne Roces, Nerissa Bautista, Michelle Carolino, Mary Jean Balse, Rachel Anne Daquis, Charo Soriano, Angela Benting and Alyssa Valdez

MANILA, Philippines — Women’s volleyball popularity in the Philippines are rising despite being a basketball country.

The reason for the rise in the popularity of women’s volleyball comes from the V-League, which is created by a group called Sports Vision. Sports Vision was founded by Ricky Palou, Moying Martelino and the late former Philippine Basketball Association commissioner Jun Bernardino who had deep roots in basketball.

The Shakey’s V-League gave collegiate stars now have a mainstream audience to showcase their skills, not to mention their own cult following in their respective schools.

“It was Shakey’s that showed faith in women’s volleyball,” said Gretchen Ho, Cainglet’s equally popular Ateneo teammate.

The players felt the tournament’s impact immediately.

“I was surprised when people came to watch us play,” said Suzanne Roces, the former star of the San Sebastian volleyball varsity program, speaking of her early days in the V-League. “Before, the only people who would watch us play were our schoolmates.”

Roces, Cainglet and Ho are just part of the stable of stars that the V-League has produced. University of Santo Tomas’ Mary Jean Balse and Angeli Tabaquero, Ateneo’s Charo Soriano and Alyssa Valdez, Far Eastern University’s Rachel Anne Daquis, La Salle’s Michelle Carolino and Adamson’s Angela Benting have also crossed over to mainstream consciousness because of the Shakey’s tournament. Daquis, has also been seen in the modeling world.


While the V-League gave the collegiate stars and the sport even more popularity, it was a college game that amplified that popularity.


“The rivalry really helped add to the hype for women’s volleyball,” Ho said in a television interview.

Read more: http://sports.inquirer.net/101779/womens-volleyball-rises-in-ph#ixzz2UUIbfTEb

NU Lady Bulldogs in Finals vs Ateneo, defeats Adamson in four

The NU Lady Bulldogs will be going to the Finals of the 10th season of the Shakey’s V-League after a four-set victory, 24-26, 25-20, 25-15 and 25-22 against the Adamson Lady Falcons last Sunday at the FilOil Flying V Arena in San Juan.

Adamson had first prevailed last May 14 in five sets (22-25, 25-18, 25-19, 22-25, 15-13) earlier, before NU evened things up on May 16, also after the game went the distance (20-25, 25-21, 24-26, 25-21, 15-12).

The Lady Bulldogs led the game early in the first set, 8-5, using their impenetrable blocking. The length advantage of Dindin and Jaja Santiago, Myla Pablo and Carmina Aganon is too much for Adamson as the Lady Bulldogs increased their lead to six at 12-6. Adamson tied to catch up behind Pau Soriano and Shiela Pineda but it fall short.

Dindin Santiago of the Lady Bulldogs lead all players with 24 markers. Myla Pablo chipped in 20, while Carmina Aganon had 11.

Rubie De Leon was able to garner six points while dishing out 37 excellent sets.

Adamson's Pau Soriano had team-high 19 points in the loss, Mylene Paat scored 11.

NU will face the defending champions Ateneo Lady Eagles in the finals, having beaten them in three sets in the elimination round. The best-of-three series begins Thursday at the SM MOA Arena at 4pm, with the battle for third place between Adamson and UST taking place first at 2pm.

Philippines bag gold medals in Pan-Asian BJJ tilt

MANILA, Philippines - 2 Filipino fighters outclassed their rivals to win gold medals on the first day of the 2013 Pan Asian Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu International in Pasay City last Saturday.

Jerry Legaspi of Team Kamphius-Fabricio won against Taffy Gutu of Hongkong using a jumping guillotine choke in the finals.

The 37-year-old Muay-Thai instructor Edmund Lauron of Gracie Bara Westchase and Lali Jochman of Kreation JJ-Singapore on is way to the finals.

Legaspi’s team mate Stephen Salazar made double for the Filipinos by securing a close 3-2 decision against Neil Tan in the finals of the Male Masters Blue belt division.

Salazar needed to beat Hideaki Sakamoto of Japan for a titular showdown versus Tan.

Shakey's V-League

The Shakey's V-League is the Philippines intercollegiate women's volleyball league formed in 2004 by a management group (Sports Vision) led by former PBA commissioner Jun Bernardino and pizza company Shakey's. Before the start of the 2nd conference of Season 1, Jun Bernandino invited his fellow Ateneo alumni Ricky Palou, Tony Boy Liao, Moying Martelino and Jun Jun Capistrano to join the management group.

The team with the most wins in the Shakey's V-League is the UST Tigresses they have six championships to boast followed by the DLSU Lady Archers with three V-League title, AdU Lady Falcons and ADMU Lady Eagles with two, SSC-R Lady Stags, Vietsovpetro (VIE), Philippine Army Lady Troopers and Sandugo-SSCR having one championship each.

The UST Tigresses won the inaugural V-League championship in 2004 defeating the La Salle Lady Archers.

But the De La Salle University-Manila volley-belles have won the next three conferences of the said league defeating their arch-rivals, UST Tigresses in both conferences of Season 2 and SSC - R Lady Stags in Season 3, sweeping them both in the Finals of the three conferences.

The UST Tigresses returned to the League in 2007, after missing Season 3, winning both conferences of Season 4 by defeating the SSC-R Lady Stags in both finals series.

Year 2008 saw the crowning of two other schools aside from UST and DLSU.

Adamson University won the championship in the first conference of Season 5 defeating the ADMU Lady Eagles while San Sebastian College-Recoletos Lady Stags won the second conference of season 5 by sweeping the two former champion teams: DLSU Lady Archers in the semifinals and UST Tigresses in the finals.

However, the Tigresses made history via a "three-peat" winning their fourth, fifth and sixth championships by sweeping both conferences of Season 6 by defeating SSC-R and Adamson, respectively in both championship series, and again winning the first conference of Season 7 by beating SSC-R for the fourth time in the finals.

It was the battle of the runners-up of the last two conferences when Adamson University faced the Lady Stags of SSC-R in the finals of the 2nd Conference Season 7. Adamson won its second V-League crown after defeating San Sebastian 2-1 in their Finals series.

In the 1st Conference Season 8, the Ateneo Lady Eagles won their first Shakey's V-League crown by thumping defending champions Adamson in the Finals.

The 2nd Conference of Season 8 was renamed the Shakey's V-League Open Conference as it was opened to non-school teams. Four non-school teams joined the tournament, namely, the Philippine Army, Philippine Navy, Philippine Air Force and Maynilad. The Philippine Army won their first Shakey's V-League championship.

Season 8-Open Conference, Shakey's V-League will also aired on GMA Life TV, GMA News TV and GMA Pinoy TV for the international viewers. Season 9 was locally aired on AKTV on IBC13 and Hyper Cable channel. Starting from its 10th Season, Shakey's V-League's new broadcasting partner is now GMA News TV channel 11. All of the matches are aired at 1PM to 3PM during weekdays, and 12:45PM to 2:30PM during Saturdays. Some of the previous matches from Season 10 are also featured on GMA News TV All Sports, every Sunday at 9:45AM.

During the onset of the league, the games were held in the gym of the Lyceum of The Philippines University. The league also used to be played in the Rizal Memorial Coliseum and in the Ateneo Blue Eagle gym. At present, all games are held at the Fil-Oil Flying-V Arena in San Juan, Metro Manila and Ninoy Aquino Stadium.