Friday, February 1, 2013

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.