National University continuously delivered a resounding performance to stay unscathed on Friday, April 26, heading into the girls’ championship of 2024 Philippine National Volleyball Federation (PNVF) Under-18 Championship at the Rizal Memorial Coliseum.
The Lady Bullpups blasted De La Salle-Lipa, 25-19, 25-15, 25-23, in the semifinal behind the strong showing of Denesse Daylisan and team captain Harlyn Serneche to set up a title duel with another undefeated University of Santo Tomas (UST) squad.
“This is a transition team where the older faces did not play anymore as we focused on fresh faces to be developed,” NU’s long-time coach Norman Miguel said. “This team is composed of grade nine athletes in high school. We’re looking forward to the final against UST.”
Meanwhile, the UST Junior Golden Tigresses swept the Kings’ Montessori School, 25-20, 25-14, 25-17, in the other girls’ semifinal event organized by the PNVF headed by Ramon “Tats” Suzara to give way to high school volleyball talents all over the country.
Both teams were able to win all four games each in their respective girls’ pool before UST booted out Canossa Academy, 25-13, 25-15, 25-12, as NU outplayed fellow University Athletic Association of the Philippines bet De La Salle-Zobel, 25-18, 25-16, 25-17, in the quarterfinals last week.
The boys’ semifinal between Orion’s Angatleta and VNS-Savouge, Umingan and Canada’s Academy were playing as of press time.
The PNVF is giving students from the schools seeing action in the semifinal Friday, classification matches on Saturday, and the final on Sunday the opportunity to watch the games live for free by showing their school ID cards.
The classification matches for fifth to eighth places for both genders are on Saturday starting at 10 a.m. with the last match set at 5:30 p.m., while the schedule for Sunday are the battle for bronze at 10 a.m. for boys and 12:30 p.m. for girls.
The gold medal duels at 3 p.m. for the girls and 5:30 p.m. for the boys.