National University drubbed La Salle-Lipa, 25-21, 25-16, in the duel between undefeated squads to claim solo leadership in the resumption of the 2024 Philippine National Volleyball Federation (PNVF) Under-18 Championship on Friday at the Rizal Memorial Coliseum in Manila.
The Lady Bullpups needed only 51 minutes to dispatch the Batangas bets and zoom to a 3-0 won-lost record in Pool B of the girls’ division.
NU, an established powerhouse in junior volleyball, has yet to yield a single set in a stellar run so far after also clobbering Parañaque City, 25-4, 25-16, and Colegio de Los Baños, 25-10, 25-12.
La Salle-Lipa tripped to 2-1, good for second place midway through the group phase.
In Pool A, the University of Santo Tomas (2-0) hardly broke a sweat against the Limitless Sports Center (0-3), 25-9, 25-8, for also a solo lead after a 25-16, 25-23 win over the Kings’ Montessori School (KMS) in the opener.
KMS then scored a 25-20, 25-11 win over Gracel Christian College (1-1), also in Pool A, to climb to 2-1 following a previous 25-10, 25-9 win over the listless Limitless Sports Center before the break.
Action continues today until the end of the month for the group phase of the first high school tournament by the PNVF headed by President Ramon “Tats” Suzara after a long break in observance of the Holy Week.
UST will shoot for its third straight win against La Salle-Zobel (0-1) at 10 a.m. followed by the duels between La Salle-Lipa (2-1) and Parañaque City (0-1) at 11:30 a.m., as well as San Juan Institute of Technology-Batangas (1-1) and Colegio de Los Baños (0-1) at 12 noon, to cap the girls’ division.
In the boys’ play, leader Umingan, Pangasinan (2-0) tries to widen its lead in Pool B against La VNS (1-1) in the main game at 5:30 p.m. after Batangas Christian School (0-1) battles La Salle-Lipa (1-1) at 2:30 p.m. and Angatleta Sports Bataan (1-0) takes on the Golden Whiskers Club (0-0) at 4 p.m.