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The NU Lady Bulldogs celebrate their National Invitational Championship win at the Shakey’s Super League. -SSL Photo
MANILA, Philippines — Maybe they entered the tournament with lowered expectations, but the Northwestern University Lady Bulldogs still showed off their college program’s strength by capturing their first-ever National Invitational Championship in the Shakey Super League.
The Lady Bulldogs did not play UAAP Season 86 Finals MVP Alyssa Solomon to recover from injury, and they did not count on Bella Belen and Arah Panique to finish the tournament since they have committed to play for Alas Pilipinas.
However, NU still had good luck as Alas Pilipinas’ flight to Japan was postponed to a later date, allowing the duo to fulfill their championship dream.
read: NU Lady Bulldogs sweep Super League title again
In the second match held at the Ninoy Aquino Stadium on Tuesday night, Panik and Belen played their second consecutive five-set championship match, combining for 52 points to help Northwestern University come from behind to win, defeating a strong Far Eastern University 25-21, 23-25, 20-25, 25-19, 15-10 to claim the championship.
The Lady Bulldogs were also without Vange Alinsug and Sheena Toring in the title-deciding game.
“I must say that the Northwestern volleyball program has built the right model from high school to college. Even though it’s not always perfect, the results show that we are getting things done,” Northwestern coach Norman Miguel said in Filipino.
Panique scored a tournament-high 27 points, while Belen, who was named the National Invitation Tournament MVP, scored 25 points to complete the series sweep by defeating the Lady Tamaraws in two consecutive five-game series in 48 hours.
read: UAAP: With core intact, NU Lady Bulldogs expected to remain competitive
“We were lucky because of some good luck and their flight to Japan was rescheduled. So the players’ morale was high and they trained harder,” Miguel said of the national team duo who were originally scheduled to participate only in the group stage.
NU dominated two SSL preseason games, went undefeated through 24 games and captured its first National Invitational Tournament title since joining the league two years ago.
“We are very happy to win this championship because our preparation was a little bit inadequate because most of our players came from Korea (on a trip) and we only had five days to prepare,” Miguel said. “We also had to manage the burden of injured players and national team players. You have to get the players to blend together and be seen while maintaining a winning culture.”
The Bulldogs won their second title of the year after finishing as champions in the UAAP Season 86 last May. The college preseason tournament in September.
Belen was also named the first-best outside spiker, while teammates Rams Lamina (best setter) and Shayla Jadio (best libero) also received individual awards.
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Other individual award winners included Wewe Estoque (second place best outside spiker) and Zam Nolasco (first place best middle blocker) of the Academy of Saint Benilde, who took third place, Jean Asis of FEU (second place best middle blocker) and Judielle Nitura of Letland (best counter-attacker).
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