THE defending champs NU Lady Bulldogs seek a bounce back win and revenge against the UP Fighting Maroons, as they start their second-round campaign in the UAAP Season 88 women’s volleyball tournament at the Araneta Coliseum on Wednesday.
National University (NU) and University of the Philippines (UP) clash at 3 p.m., succeeding the first women’s match between the UE Lady Warriors and the FEU Lady Tamaraws at 1 p.m.
Men’s matches take place in the morning with the UE Red Warriors battling the FEU Tamaraws at 9 a.m., and the NU Bulldogs taking on the UP Fighting Maroons at 11 a.m.
The Lady Bulldogs try to recover from their loss to the De La Salle Lady Spikers last Sunday, 21-25, 19-25, 25-19, 17-25.
The Regine Diego-mentored team thus finished the first round with a 5-2 win-loss card, good for second place behind the unbeaten La Salle at 7-0.
The Lady Bulldogs’ other loss came from UP on Feb. 28 when the Maroons pulled off a reverse sweep, 16-25, 16-25, 25-22, 31-29, 18-16.
Super rookie Sam Cantada, Vange Alinsug and Lams Lamina are out to lead NU to a win this time.
Meanwhile, UP finished the first round with a 3-4 slate good for the sixth spot in the standings.
The Fighting Maroons are reeling from their straight-set loss, yielding to the Adamson Lady Falcons last Sunday, 18-25, 16-25, 19-25.
UP tries to get out of the funk and take NU’s number once more, but the Fabio Menta-coached squad needs to do it without one of its key players, Casiey Dongallo.
Dongallo sustained an ACL injury on her left knee on March 8 against FEU, forcing her to miss the remainder of the season.
Gelai Gajero and Nina Ytang look to lead the charge for UP.
MVP award frontrunners
After the first round, UST Golden Tigresses Angge Poyos and UST Golden Spikers Josh Ybañez emerged as frontrunners for the Most Valuable Player (MVP) award in the women’s and men’s divisions, respectively.
Poyos collected 156.522 statistical points (SPs) followed by Adamson’s Shaina Nitura (147.200) and La Salle’s Angel Canino (142.800).
Ybañez amassed 158,000 SPs followed by NU’s Buds Buddin (153.750) and Leo Ordiales (152.083).