NU Bulldogs’ Michaelo Buddin. –UAAP PHOTO
Seeking perfection this season, National University (NU) went through its hardest outing just to get a shot at that.
The Bulldogs survived University of Santo Tomas, 25-23, 25-22, 21-25, 29-31, 15-11, to set the tables on completing an unbeaten season and seal a third straight UAAP men’s volleyball title at Mall of Asia Arena on Wednesday.
Michaelo Buddin came to the rescue in the deciding set for the Bulldogs, scoring five of his team-high 26 points to keep NU unbeaten in 15 games this season and extend its winning streak to 33 games dating back to the opening day of Season 81 in 2019.
“I didn’t want to waste the effort of my teammates and coaching staff—so I kept on fighting, I didn’t want to let them down because we had a long preparation for this game,” said Buddin in Filipino after finishing with 24 spikes, one block and an ace to go with 26 excellent receptions.
Santo Tomas, which rallied behind the heroics of rookie Josh Ybañez and GBoy de Vega in the fourth set, blew a 7-5 lead in the fifth and gave up six errors in the frame, including four attack miscues that gave NU a 12-9 advantage.
“It was an exciting game. Both teams gave their best in every set. Although in other sets, we had problems on our offense but good thing their unforced errors helped us. We need to work harder on Sunday to finally achieve our goal,” said NU coach Dante Alinsunurin after the Bulldogs and Golden Spikers’ first Finals collision in the Final Four era.
Game 2 is on Sunday also at Mall of Asia Arena, where the La Salle Lady Spikers will try to finish off the NU Lady Bulldogs in their own series for the women’s title.