Tough tournament schedule up for NCAA squads

The NCAA volleyball season will present a new challenge for all schools with its tough scheduling that could have a team playing three times a week.

But that doesn’t faze Arellano champion coach Obet Javier, who said he welcomes the new schedule.

“With that type of schedule, you can’t afford to get injured. You can’t lose focus because you can be left behind in an instant,” Javier said in Filipino last Friday.

Games this season will be played all week except Wednesdays and Sundays, opening up teams to playing thrice in a week.

But Javier said it was a hand dealt everyone so teams have to find a way around it.

“That’s what’s presented to us so we accept it,” he added.

The soft-spoken mentor noted that even the teams are getting better and better this season.

“The competition this year is high caliber,” Javier said.

Take St. Benilde for example. The Season 91 champ relied on a a pair of rookies to pull off a shocking victory over last year’s second placer Perpetual on Friday.