Bulldogs, Lady Spikers renew bitter feud for preseason crown

NU Lady Bulldogs’ Alyssa Solomon over La Salle Green Archers Angel Canino during a 2024 Shakey’s Super League Collegiate Pre-season Championship game. –HANDOUT PHOTO

The two most successful collegiate programs of late in National University and La Salle renew their bitter feud starting on Friday when Game 1 of the Shakey’s Super League Collegiate Preseason Championship gets off the ground at Rizal Memorial Coliseum.

Dominating the UAAP this decade, the three-peat-seeking Lady Bulldogs and the Lady Spikers open the best-of-three championship at 6:30 p.m., not only with each having an eye on the prize but the psychological edge when the 87th season of the country’s biggest collegiate league rolls around later in the year.

And this will be the baptism of fire for Sherwin Meneses, the multi-titled professional coach who will lock horns with a program that the revered Ramil de Jesus has been in charge of for the last two decades or so.

“This will be a different atmosphere,” Meneses, who coached Creamline to a historic PVL Grand Slam last season and put the Cool Smashers on target for a record-extending fifth All-Filipino title, said in Filipino. “I think the level of game is also different, although this is a good matchup.”

Alyssa Soloman, Vange Alinsug and the irrepressible Bella Belen will banner National U, also the reigning UAAP queen, as they face a formidable attacking core of the Lady Spikers in Sevana Laput, Amie Provido and the prolific Angel Canino.

“We have always stressed that we will be going up against a formidable team,” La Salle assistant Noel Orcullo said, also in Filipino. “We will need to stick to our system—to our passing—and we need to stay patient.”

La Salle eliminated University of Santo Tomas in five gripping sets in the semifinals, leaving the Growling Tigresses in a battle for the bronze with Far Eastern, which got the boot courtesy of the Lady Bulldogs.

That one-game playoff is slated on Sunday.