NCAA volley tilts feature key changes

A pair of major changes are set to be implemented in the men’s and women’s volleyball tournaments of Season 100 of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) this February.

Season 100 NCAA management committee chairman Hercules Callanta said they will finally have a double-round elimination format in both the men’s and women’s volleyball competitions that start on 20 February.

Callanta, also the athletic director for Lyceum of the Philippines University, said the change was long overdue as they respond to the growing popularity of the sport as well as to the challenge put up by the University Athletic Association of the Philippines, which has been using this format in its volleyball events.

“In women’s volleyball, we decided to make it two rounds already. To be honest, it’s been a very popular sport forever. Not only in the NCAA, in the whole Philippines,” Callanta said.

“By the way, it’s not only women’s volleyball that will have two rounds. Even the men’s volleyball will have two rounds. The juniors volleyball will have one round but the consensus was, it was really time already to make it two rounds because of the popularity of this sport.”

For the longest time, NCAA volleyball has been using a single round-robin format in its volleyball events.

Defending champion College of Saint Benilde is currently the gold standard of NCAA volleyball not just for winning three straight titles from 2022 to 2024 but also for its 40-game winning streak dating back to 2020. In the men’s side, University of Perpetual Help System Dalta is also out to defend its title.

Aside from the change of competition format, the NCAA is also set to hold the first round of volleyball events in the respective gymnasiums of various schools.

The remaining games of the first round and the rest of the second round of eliminations will be played at the Filoil EcoOil Centre.

The last time the NCAA pulled off something like this was back in 2018 when select schools hosted the day’s double-header games in men’s basketball.

“Some schools, like Letran College, don’t have a gym yet. I’m not sure when they’re going to be able to finish their gym but all schools, as I know, will have at least one volleyball game,” Callanta said.