By MARK REY MONTEJO
Top women’s volleyball teams both from the UAAP and NCAA will fight for the bragging rights when they face each other in the 2023 Shakey’s Super League (SSL) Pre-season Championship starting Saturday, Sept. 16, at the FilOil EcoOil Centre in San Juan.
Shakey’s Pizza Asia Ventures Inc. President, Vic Gregorio graced the press launching along with Patricia Hizon, Arellano University’s Peter Cayco, PSC Commissioner Fritz Gaston, Jorge Concepcion and Dr. Ian Laurel, underscoring their readiness to help aspiring volleyball players.
In the future, Gregorio and Laurel said they will also invite provincial universities and colleges to make it truly a national event considering volleyball is now almost popular as basketball.
“Shakey’s has been part of collegiate volleyball since 2005, and we keep thriving for the betterment of the sport here in the country,” Gregorio said on Thursday, Sept. 14, at Shakey’s Parlor in Malate, Manila.
“That’s also our plan, which is to invite colleges from different provinces to join, for them to bolster their skills and at the same time showcase their talents,” he added.
Players and coaches joined the launching as well and shared some glimpse of their preparations and stories of their inspirations.
A total of 16 teams are competing in the event with Ateneo and Adamson leading the UAAP side while College of St. Benilde and University of Perpetual Help System Dalta spearheading the NCAA group.
Also competing are Adamson, University of Santo Tomas, University of the East, Far Eastern University and National University while from the NCAA are San Sebastian, Arellano University, Emilio Aguinaldo College, Jose Rizal University, Lyceum, Mapua, Letrán, and San Beda.
UAAP champion La Salle won’t be seeing action due to prior commitment which is same thing for University of the Philippines.
The opening ceremony will start at 1:30 p.m. followed by Perpetual against UST showdown at 3:30 p.m, while San Beda will meet Arellano at 6 p.m.
On Sunday, UE will challenge JRU starting at 1 p.m. followed by the game between LPU and SBU at 3:30 p.m. before Adamson and Arellano cap the triple-header at 6 p.m.
