Volleyball will be one of the four mandatory sports in the NCAA starting this year.
NCAA Management Committee chairman Jose Mari Lacson of Season 92 host San Beda said the board has officially approved volleyball as the fourth sport branded as mandatory along with basketball, swimming, and, centerpiece, athletics.
“It’s approved,” said Lacson.
While it will be approved in the men’s and women’s in the seniors division, volleyball will only be mandatory in 2018. The decision was spurred by the recent emergence of volleyball as a popular sport.
The College of Saint Benilde Lady Blazers shocked the collegiate scene in shaking-off a thrice-to-beat disadvantage against the San Sebastian Lady Stags in last season’s women’s volleyball tournament. Over at the men’s side, the Perpetual Altas and the EAC Generals went the entire distance, including a five-set winner-take-all Game 3, with the Las Pinas spikers coming out on top.
Moreover, the NCAA is mulling the possibility of making all its calendared sports mandatory for all members in the future.
“The NCAA’s goal is to increase participation not just in a few sports but all and the NCAA plans to make it every sport mandatory in the future,” Mancom member Peter Cayco of Arellano University added. “The NCAA started with volleyball first because all schools are already active when it comes to it.”
Set to open basketball hostilities are Mapua against Jose Rizal at 2 p.m. and defending champion Letran and last year’s runner-up San Beda in the main game at 4:00pm.
Organizers also promised a big opening number that will be choreographed by Roxanne Lapus and directed by Douglas Nierras to jumpstart the season set to unfold at 12:30pm.
