By using its rookies in the Shakey’s Super League beginning on September 22, National University hopes to improve its chances of retaining the UAAP championship.

Following a perfect UAAP Season 84, NU’s players were abruptly dismissed from the Philippine women’s volleyball team. Reigning champion coach Karl Dimaculangan sees the resumption of the preseason league as an opportunity to improve even further.

So that they may become accustomed to our system in college, we are eager to field our new players. For them, this will result in good exposure, Dimaculangan told Inquirer Sports.

We will compete against both UAAP and NCAA institutions, thus the Shakey’s Super League is thrilling. Despite the fact that the pandemic is still going on, it is encouraging to see a return to normalcy with the preseason tournament.

Seven rookies are joining the Lady Bulldogs this season, including Bella Belen, the rookie MVP, Vange Alinsug, Shai Jardio, Alyssa Solomon, Lams Lamina, Sheena Toring, and two high school standouts.

Ivy Lacsina, Joyme Cagande, libero Jen Nierva, and Finals MVP Cess Robles have all committed to playing one more year in Season 85, the school announced earlier this month.

The outcome of their technical meeting with SSL will still determine Dimaculangan’s starting lineup, despite his intentions to field all of his players. However, the young coach places a high priority on introducing his newcomers.

“I’m hoping we can get every one of our players lined up for this tournament so we can test out new rotations every game. The line-up will also feature the seniors from Season 85. But we genuinely want to give our other players, especially the youngsters, exposure,” he stated.

“This is an opportunity for the whole team to get more playing time and show off their abilities.”

La Salle, the runner-up, and four other UAAP schools will be up against NU, which had an outstanding 16 to 0 season in June. Ten NCAA schools, led by the defending champion College of St. Benilde, who swept Season 97, will also face off against the Lady Bulldogs.

The nucleus of NU was called up to represent the resuscitation of the women’s national volleyball team in the AVC Cup for Women from August 21 to 29 after their championship run.

However, the Philippine National Volleyball Federation abruptly terminated the 12 members of the Lady Bulldogs and Dimaculangan from the program after the school administration refused to permit its players to play as a last-minute replacement for Kobe Shinwa University of Japan in the Premier Volleyball League (PVL) Invitational Conference due to injury concerns.

Otie Camangian, the athletic director at NU, attended the SSL league opening on Tuesday. He is excited to see how the young Lady Bulldogs do in the league and feels that everything happens for a reason.

Before becoming a coach, I was an athlete. Things happen for a variety of reasons, but in the end, Camangian told the reporters, “If you’re an athlete, you’ll still be an athlete as long as you can play. “We will certainly take that into consideration if we believe that a certain tournament will be valuable and will assist our student-athletes. As a team, individual student-athletes, and individual coaches at NU, we see it as an opportunity to get better.

Just recently in UAAP Season 84, NU showcased strong potential against the very popular DLSU. NU dominates La Salle in Game 1 and is getting close to winning the championship

For National University, the coming season is ideal.

At Mall of Asia Arena on  that Saturday night, the Lady Bulldogs recorded their 15th victory in as many games to finish one victory short of winning the UAAP Season 84 women’s volleyball championship.

In Game 1 of their best-of-three championship series, NU dominated La Salle with scores of 25 – 20, 25 – 12, and 25 – 21 while displaying the composure that had been present the entire season.

The Lady Spikers made every attempt to stage a comeback, but they could only get as close as 20 to 22 in the third quarter before NU once more pulled away, this time by a margin of 24 to 20, thanks to back-to-back points from Alyssa Solomon. The final kill was delivered by Belen, who helped the Lady Bulldogs establish the tone for the best-of-three series.