Perpetual sweeps NCAA South volley titles

University of Perpetual Help-Laguna proved too much for its opponents and retained the men’s and women’s volleyball championships of the 14th NCAA South at the Lyceum Philippines University-Batangas covered court in Batangas City last Monday.

Coached by former national standout Otie Camangian, the Saints were solid on both offense in defense in overpowering the LPU-Batangas Pirates in straight sets, 25-11, 25-19, 25-14, to sweep their best-of-3 title series.

Perpetual leaned on the outstanding performances of Paul Ryan Visita, Marty Soria and John Javier in outclassing the hosts, who performed listlessly with ace spiker Aries Solas hobbled by an ankle injury.

“We lost our rhythm with Solas’ injury. We were never the same without him leading us,” said LPU-Batangas coach Bob Malenab, a former national teammate and good friend of Camangian.

Not to be outdone, the Lady Saints unleashed twin towers Maria Mendiloa and Hanna Mance on First Asia Institute of Technology and Humanities and emerged victorious, 25-17, 24-26, 25-23, 25-10.

“We worked hard on our passing, receiving and blocking which were our weaknesses in the eliminations,” said Camangian, also Perpetual’s athletic director, in steering his squad to their fourth straight championship.

Awarding the two squads their trophies was LPU-Batangas vice president for institutional affairs and NCAA MANCOM chair Dr. Fe Medina.

De La Salle-Lipa shared the spotlight after annexing the girls volleyball and the boys basketball championships.

The La Salle-Lipa volleybelles swept its matches against University of Batangas, 28-26, 13-25, 25-16, 18-25, 15-8 and 25-17, 26-24, 25-20, to annex the crown while their boys’ squad slipped past Perpertual Help 58-55 in Game 3 for its first championship in the league.