Volleybelles win seals La Salle’s overall title

MANILA, Philippines - The Lady Spikers’ romp in women’s volleyball capped De La Salle University’s sterling campaign in UAAP Season 75 highlighted with its coronation as the new overall champion of the country’s premier collegiate league.

The Taft-based student-athletes compiled 293 points in 28 events played in the 2012-13 season to capture their first general championship (GC) in the UAAP, breaking the stranglehold of Santo Tomas (277 points) which reigned for the last 14 years.

Led by the three-peat titlist Lady Spikers, the female La Sallians struck hard for DLSU. Before the well-publicized women’s volleyball conquest, La Salle ladies ruled the field in taekwondo, table tennis, chess and tennis to earn the maximum 15 points per event winners in the UAAP’s scoring system for the general championship.

DLSU had five runner-up finishes, worth 12 points each, in women’s basketball, men’s taekwondo, men’s swimming, men’s table tennis and women’s football while placing third (worth 10 points each) in 11 other events. The contingent in green and white also had five fourth-place standings (eight points each) to bolster their breakout season.

“We just celebrated our 100th year last year and I think carry over from that, the energy of the athletes are still high,” said Bro. Bernie Oca, DLSU Vice Chancellor for Lasallian Mission and Alumni Relations, of the university’s ascension to the throne.

It was a fitting farewell gift to Oca, who is set to leave the Taft campus to assume his new role as president of La Salle-Zobel. “After six years at DLSU, to have won it on my last year, it’s really great,” he said.

Santo Tomas, owner of 39 general championships, actually topped more events than DLSU with six, namely women’s beach volley, men’s taekwondo, men’s table tennis, men’s and women’s judo, and men’s chess.  The Thomasians also had second places in men’s badminton, women’s taekwondo, men’s and women’s tennis, women’s fencing and men’s athletics plus four third places and six fourth place finishes. Their failure to reach the Final Four in men and women’s volleyball eventually cost them the GC crown.

Ateneo, which ended the season with a bridesmaid finish in women’s volleyball, wound up third overall with a tally of 205 points. The Ateneans matched DLSU’s five titles for the year, soaring high in men’s baseball and men’s football to complement their five-peat in men’s basketball, and triumphs in women’s badminton and men’s swimming.

Far Eastern is set to finish at fourth, regardless of the outcome of its men’s volleyball team’s rubbermatch with National U today. The Tams and Lady Tams, champs in women’s basketball, men’s and women’s athletics, and women’s football, had 188 points and would net either 15 points (champion) or 12 points (runner-up) from the male spikers.

University of the Philippines, the women’s swimming winner, wound up fifth with 197 points, followed by NU, the men’s tennis, men’s badminton and men’s beach volley champs. The Bulldogs had 146 points, not counting the points they will get from men’s volleyball.

University of the East, which swept men’s and women’s fencing, was seventh with 132 as Adamson, the softball queens, finished last with 102.