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February 28, 2025 | 4:32pm
NU's Bella Belen (4) celebrates after a point during their clash with the FEU Lady Tamaraws Sunday evening at the MOA Arena in Pasay City.
(UAAP Media Bureau)
Games Saturday
(Mall of Asia Arena)
10 a.m. – UST vs AdU (men)
12 p.m. – NU vs UE (men)
2 p.m. – UST vs AdU (women)
4 p.m. – NU vs UE (women)
MANILA, Philippines -- Unbeaten champion National University eyes to pull away from the pack while Adamson and University of Santo Tomas seek a solo second spot as the first-round action heats up in the UAAP Season 87 women’s volleyball today at the Mall of Asia Arena.
Hostilities fire off at 2 p.m. featuring the duel between Golden Tigresses (2-1) and Lady Falcons (2-1) led by the league’s rising stars before the Lady Bulldogs (3-0) battle the listless University of the East Lady Warriors (0-3) at 4 p.m. Their men’s teams clash at 10 a.m. for UST-AdU and 12 noon for NU-UE.
NU took care of its first three assignments to live up to expectations as the undisputed team to beat, making short work of La Salle and Ateneo before encountering a heavy resistance against Far Eastern University.
The Lady Bulldogs needed five sets to tame the Lady Tamaraws, who also beat them once in the Final Four last year, 25-15, 23-25, 24-26, 25-23, 15-8. And that’s exactly the reason why coach Sherwin Meneses is wary of the Lady Warriors regardless of their winless slate.
"Lagi ko nalang sinasabi na malakas man kalaban or hindi at nasa bottom man, ‘yung one point at a time lang ang mindset namin talaga,” warned Meneses.
“So kung UE yan, FEU, La Salle or kahit sino man, ‘yung one point ang laging reminders namin, sa team. Talagang paghahandaan din talaga namin.”
In the other game, super sophomore Angge Poyos and stellar rookie Shaina Nitura take centerstage in an expected slugfest between Santo Tomas and Adamson eyeing to break free from triple-way tie with UP for the No. 2 seed.
Poyos, before her collegiate transition en route to Rookie of the Year and Second Best Outside Spiker citation last season, has already met Nitura in the juniors division, where the latter ruled as Most Valuable Player after a 14-0 sweep of Adamson last year for the school’s first title.
It was also Nitura who smashed Poyos’ UAAP record of 31 points when she dropped 33 in her UAAP debut against Ateneo.
"Actually nagkaharap na kami ni Shai ‘nung high school days namin sa UAAP, so in-expect ko talaga na magaling siya. Ine-expect ko na maganda ‘yung laban ng team sa team ng Adamson," said Poyos.
