DLSU-FEU volleyball finals series fires off
THE best-of-three University Athletic Association of the Philippines (UAAP) Season 80 women’s volleyball finals series fires off this weekend, featuring the back-to-back defending champions De La Salle Lady Spikers against the nowback-in-the-finals Far Eastern University (FEU) Lady Tamaraws.
Topped the elimination round with 12- 2 and 10- 4 records, respectively, La Salle and FEU, which held twice-to-beat advantages in the Final Four, set up the finals date by defeating their respective opponents at the first instance.
It will mark the first time that two of the more successful volleyball programs in the UAAP will collide in the Big Dance since Season 71 when the Lady Spikers got the better of the Lady Tamaraws, 2-1.
Proceedings for the UAAP Season 80 finals get going on Saturday, April 28, for Game One set at 4 p.m. at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.
The La Salle-FEU finals reengagement incidentally broke six straight years of a La Salle-Ateneo championship matchup, something the Lady Spikers view as a welcome challenge.
“The intensity I think will still be the same against FEU. Of course, Ateneo-La Salle has a different aura because there is the long-standing school rivalry. In this series FEU will bring its own crowd as much as we will bring ours and you’ll never know,” said graduating player Kim Kianna Dy after they bagged the school’s 10th straight finals seat in UAAP women’s volleyball on April 22.
“FEU in the finals means they deserve to be there. We are the top two teams and it could go either way,” Majoy Baron, another graduating player, for her part, said.
For La Salle coach Ramil De Jesus, the about-to-begin finals should be an exciting one.
“We all know that in the first and second round we fought FEU through five sets. So I don’t see the finals being anything different and it’s going to be an exciting series,” the coach said.
“So it is going to boil down to who wants it more, who shows the heart to take it all,” added Mr. De Jesus, who will pit his coaching skills against former FEU teammate George Pascua, the coach of the Lady Tamaraws.
La Salle enters the finals series having the number of FEU, 2-0, so far in the season, beating the latter, 25-22, 25-17, 24-26, 23-25 and 15-7 in the first round, and 2517, 21-25, 16-25, 25-20 and 15-5 in the second round.
MAKING MOST OF THE OPPORTUNITY
Back in the finals anew, FEU said it is very excited and that it is out to make the most of the opportunity given to it.
“I just told the girls that the opportunity is knocking on the door and we have to answer it to achieve what we have set out to do,” said FEU coach Pascua, referring to how they approached things when they saw chances for them were forming during the course of their campaign heading into the finals.
“We had a lot of adjustments but we managed to do them as a team. And I’m very happy we are now back in the finals,” added the coach, who took over the team in the offseason.
Mr. Pascua, who has won titles in the men’s tournament, highlighted that they are not about done and will give their all come the finals.
“We will enjoy this for a while but we will immediately go to work after because the finals are a whole new ball game,” he said.
La Salle is shooting for its 11th women’s title while FEU, the winningest in UAAP history, is gunning for title number 30.
Following tomorrow’s Game One, the second will be played on May 2 and Game Three, if necessary, on May 5. All finals matches will be played at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.