National University and De La Salle-Lipa zoomed to a joint lead after overpowering their respective foes to cap the opening weekend of the Philippine National Volleyball Federation (PNVF) Under-18 Championship women’s division on Sunday at the Rizal Memorial Coliseum.
The Lady Bullpups proved too much to handle for Parañaque City, 25-4, 25-16 while La Salle-Lipa bested its neighbor San Juan Institute of Technology-Batangas, 25-17, 25-19, to set the pace in the 12-team women’s division.
NU’s 21-point win in the first set was the biggest gap in the tournament yet as the Lady Bullpups needed only 37 minutes of play to dispatch Parañaque. La Salle-Lipa, for its part, bagged the win in 48 minutes.
Both squads climbed to similar 2-0 slates for a share of Pool B leadership with two games to go in the single-round elims.
NU first took care of business against Colegio de Los Baños, 25-10, 25-12, while La Salle-Lipa got the number of another Batangas bet in Canossa Academy-Lipa via reverse sweep, 22-25, 25-19, 25-17.
In Pool A, Maryhill College-Lucena (1-0) debuted with a bang after drubbing winless Limitless Sports Center (0-2), 25-18, 25-19 while Gracel Christian College stunned UAAP squad La Salle-Zobel, 25-22, 25-21.
Maryhille College-Lucena and Gracel Christian College thus tied Santo Tomas atop Pool A so far with identical 1-0 slates.
Kings’ Montessori School followed suit at 1-1 after avenged its opening-day defeat to UST with an easy 25-10, 25-9 win over Limitless Sports Center late Saturday night.
The first youth tournament of the PNVF headed by President Ramon “Tats” Suzara will not return to action until April 5 in observance of the Holy Week.
Games in three-setter formats are played every Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays for the single-round eliminations within their respective pools in both women’s and men’s divisions before implementing a regular five-set match in the playoffs.
Only the top four teams from each pool will advance to the quarterfinals, to be played under a knockout format until the semifinals and the championship for the prestigious PNVF youth crown.