Belen regains MVP trophy

The Most Valuable Player (MVP) trophy is back in Bella Belen’s closet.

Belen successfully recovered the MVP plum after powering National University to the finals of Season 86 University Athletic Association of the Philippines (UAAP) women’s volleyball tournament.

The 21-year-old spiker accumulated a total of 81.69 statistical points (SPs) to win her second MVP plum a year after bowing to Angel Canino of De La Salle University for the highest individual honors in Season 85.

Belen edged University of Santo Tomas (UST) rookie Angge Poyos and teammate Vange Alinsug, who finished with 78.75 SPs and 75.00 SPs, respectively.

Belen also won the 1st Best Open Spiker award and Poyos emerged as the Rookie of the Year and 2nd Best Open Spiker while UST stars Detdet Pepito and Cassie Carballo took home the Best Libero and Best Setter plums.

Poyos ranked as the second-best scorer in the league with 290 points from 249 attacks, 23 aces, and 18 blocks. She also emerged as the third most efficient spiker at 40.75 percent and the best server at 0.41 aces/set.

The sophomore Carballo accumulated 236 ranking points (RPs) as she wound up 31st in blocking, second in serving, 25th in digging, and first in setting to dominate Julia Coronel of De La Salle University (227 RPs) and Heart Magsombol (193 RPs) of University of the Philippines.

Meanwhile, Alyssa Solomon of NU emerged as the Best Opposite while Nina Ytang of University of the Philippines and Thea Gagate of De La Salle University clinched the Best Middle Blocker awards.

Belen said her MVP conquest will be worthless if they will now win the UAAP crown.

“Let me borrow UST tagline: Bring back the title to Sampaloc, Manila,” Belen said prior to Game 2 of their best-of-three finals series against the Tigresses.

“We will not stop until we win the championship this year.”

In the men’s division, UST star Josh Ybañez captured his second consecutive MVP crown, a feat last achieved by Marck Espejo of Ateneo de Manila University in 2015.

Ybañez accumulated 89.643 SPs after topping the attack, fourth in spiking, second in service, and first in reception categories. He bested Nico Almendras of NU, who finished with 80.41 SPs, and Owa Retamar of NU with 74.69 SPs.

Ybañez was also named the 1st Best Open Spiker while Almendras emerged as the 2nd Best Open Spiker, Zhydryx Saavedra of Far Eastern University (FEU) won the Best Opposite Spiker, and Martin Bugaoan of FEU and Nath Del Pilar of La Salle running away with the Best Middle Blocker plums.

Retamar took home the Best Setter award while Menard Guerrero of La Salle bagged the Best Libero award and Jade Disquitado of NU won the Rookie of the Year.