On Mother’s Day, La Salle Lady Spikers become new UAAP volleyball queens


Angel Canino La Salle Lady Spikers UAAP

Angel Canino and the La Salle Woman Spikers have a good time the UAAP Season 85 girls’s volleyball championship. UAAP PHOTO

Down two units, La Salle dug into its seemingly bottomless pit of braveness and resolve to place a wonderful finish to a UAAP girls’s volleyball season that began with the Woman Spikers means out of the championship radar.

And with Rookie-Most Invaluable Participant (MVP) Angel Canino and a towering, now-grizzled supporting solid to be again subsequent yr, the Woman Spikers have began what may very well be an extended reign as queens.

The Woman Spikers performed relentlessly on each ends earlier than an animated, screaming crowd of greater than 20,000, pulling out a 19-25, 23-25, 25-15, 25-17, 15-10 victory that dethroned Nationwide College (NU) as La Salle received its first title since 2018.

“What we would like is to win this once more subsequent yr,” Canino, who completed with 19 factors on a day she accepted her Rookie of the 12 months and MVP trophies, mentioned through the din of the celebration the place she thanked the La Salle devoted that got here in a sea of inexperienced. “We labored so laborious for this your complete season.”

Angel Canino (left) and Bella Belen show class after the hard-fought contest.

Angel Canino (left) and Bella Belen present class after the hard-fought contest.

The Woman Bulldogs regarded like they have been on the way in which to forging a deciding Recreation 3 after taking all the most effective that La Salle might provide within the first two units. However Nationwide U regarded prefer it stopped enjoying within the third and fourth durations, with even its coach not calling a timeout on the top of a La Salle surge within the third.

And like what occurred in Recreation 1, the Woman Spikers have been of their ingredient within the remaining set as Thea Gagate turned a two-way pressure and ignited pandemonium within the stands with the championship-winning level that had all La Salle gamers crying with pleasure after.

“The gamers actually needed to finish it right now,” assistant coach Noel Orcullo mentioned in Filipino. “Even once we have been down, they have been able to bleed simply to win this recreation.

“Profitable on this vogue—once you work so laborious for it—is way more particular.”

It was the twelfth title for the Taft-based college, doing it by dropping only one recreation all season—in opposition to eventual fourth placer College of Santo Tomas within the second spherical of the eliminations.

WATCH: Mars Alba, Angel Canino, Thea Gagate, and Jolina Dela Cruz share their ideas after bringing again the glory to La Salle. #UAAPSeason85 | by way of Lance Agcaoili

Posted by Inquirer Sports activities on Sunday, Could 14, 2023

Profession excessive to naught

Mars Alba celebrates winning the UAAP championship in her final year with La Salle. –UAAP PHOTO

Mars Alba celebrates profitable the UAAP championship in her remaining yr with La Salle. –UAAP PHOTO

Mars Alba, later adjudged the Finals MVP, had 16 wonderful units in orchestrating the La Salle offense. She additionally completed with three factors.

Regardless of Alyssa Solomon’s career-high 34 factors constructed round 31 kills, the Woman Bulldogs fell for the second straight recreation as a result of nobody actually stepped as much as again her up.

Bella Belen, whose file Rookie-MVP season final yr was duplicated by outdated highschool rival Canino, was held to only 11 factors on 10-of-40 assaults, whereas Vange Alinsug solely contributed seven factors.

The absence of Sheena Toring, who was unable to play as a result of a partial ACL tear in her left knee sustained in Recreation 1, added to NU’s woes.

La Salle grilled NU in all 4 video games this season, reversing final yr’s situation when the Woman Bulldogs have been those who didn’t lose a match in opposition to the Woman Spikers—and your complete subject—on the way in which to snapping a 65-year title drought.

And with that reign over after only one yr, it appears that evidently, with a comparatively intact lineup led by a Rookie-MVP that went unchecked all season, the Woman Spikers have rather a lot going for them.



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