Intact La Salle going for encore

MANILA, Philippines — La Salle will have an armory full of arrows in its title defense in Season 89.

Shevana Laput, Angel Canino, Amie Provido and Lyka de Leon yesterday announced their decision to play for a fifth and final year, ensuring an intact Lady Spikers’ core going for an encore.

The quartet anchored the Lady Spikers to a 16-0 sweep, and without dropping a set against back-to-back champion National U in the finals over the weekend in front of more than 22,000 fans.

Right in the celebration, Laput, Canino, Provido and De Leon hinted their decision to stay. None of the four went to centercourt for the “Archer Stance,” the decades-long La Salle tradition where graduating Lady Spikers – and Green Archers in basketball – take one last bow before a standing ovation from the community, win or lose.

“Us four, we wish to continue this legacy and we want to stay for one more year,” Laput said on Archers Network during the team’s courtesy call with university officials, management, and coaches after delivering the school’s 13th title in 22 finals appearances.

This season’s sweep exorcised La Salle’s 2014 collapse, when a 14-0 elims run ended with a finals loss to Ateneo despite a thrice-to-beat edge. The 16-0 mark matched Ateneo in 2015 and NU in 2022. La Salle is also the only two-time unbeaten champion in UAAP women’s volleyball history after going 14-0 in 2004 under the old format that crowned elims sweepers outright.

And they’re not done.

Laput returns as team captain after winning Finals MVP and Best Opposite Spiker. Former Rookie-MVP Canino will defend her 2nd Best Outside Spiker plum. Provido is back to keep her 1st Best Middle Blocker citation. De Leon will chase another Best Libero award.

As a unit, La Salle targets title No. 14 under coach Ramil de Jesus – sweep or not.