MANILA, Philippines - For Arellano University, patience is a virtue.
After six seasons of chasing the big one, the Lady Chiefs finally hit it huge after copping their first ever women’s volleyball championship with an impressive two-game sweep of the San Sebastian Lady Stags in their Season 90 title showdown at The Arena in San Juan Friday.
Arellano sealed its first championship since entering the league six years ago with a 25-23, 25-19, 26-24 win to the delight of its animated fans headed by school president Jose Cayco, marketing and athletic director Val Cayco and management committee representative Peter Cayco.
The volleyball title was Arellano’s second this year after topping seniors chess in the first semester last year and third overall after reigning supreme in men’s beach volleyball several years back.
“The school and the whole Arellano University community is proud of the team and hopefully, this is a start of something bigger for us,” said an ecstatic Peter Cayco.
It took a concerted effort by a squad who doesn’t rely on strong individual performance to win it.
“If you will notice, out of the individual awardees, there are no Arellano players there,” said Arellano coach Obet Javier, who was later named best coach, in Filipino.
“The reason is that we always try to make everybody get involved in all the things we do, be it in offense or in defense. And I’m happy it worked for us all season,” he added.
True enough, Arellano’s formula worked wonders as it brought the best in a team that has at least five players – Menchie Tubiera, Danna Henson, Shirley Salamagos, CJ Rosario and team captain Rialen Sante – who took turns carrying the heaviest load in each outing.
In the finals, the power-hitting Tubiera came through with the best effort, including an 18-hit game in the title-clinching Game Two triumph.
For that, Tubiera took home the MVP finals trophy.
Tubiera also scored the kill that knotted it at 24-all in the third set before a couple of more points that Henson capped with a kill herself sealed the deal.
Finally, the long wait was over for Arellano.