The second half of NCAA's centennial edition is tipped to see the volleyball tournaments featuring a longer elimination format as the league eyes to elevate the competition.
Season 100 management committee chairman Hercules Callanta of the Lyceum of the Philippines University revealed that both men's and women's volleyball will now have double-round elimination runs.
Callanta said the consensus was reached after understanding the growing popularity of the sport in the country and also allowing the players to get better as the season progresses.
"It’s a popular sport already not only in the NCAA, but in the whole Philippines. Pati men’s volleyball two rounds na," Callanta said on the sidelines of the Philippine Sportswriters Association (PSA) Awards Night on Monday at the Manila Hotel.
"The consensus was it’s already time to make it two rounds because of the popularity of the sport and besides, we ought to give more chances for the players to get better opportunities to play."
For the past years, the NCAA had been staging a single-round robin elimination round format.
It worked wonders for previous champions like University of Perpetual Help System DALTA and Arellano University as well as the reigning three-time women's champion De La Salle-College of Saint Benilde, which is now protecting a mighty 40-game winning streak.
On the men's side, Perpetual had also taken advantage of the fast-paced single-round format, sweeping the elimination rounds from Season 93 to Season 99 and winning the titles in those editions.
Aside from tweaking the format, Callanta said the first round of the volleyball tournament will be hosted by the participating school before the second round returns to the FilOil EcoOil Centre.
"Some schools like Letran don't have a gym yet, but all schools as I know will host at least one playdate. As I remember, it’s for the first round and the second round will be played in FilOil," he added.
Meanwhile, the beach volleyball tournament will kick off on February 3 in Subic with Perpetual and Colegio de San Juan de Letran eyeing to complete a three-peat in the men's and women's division, respectively.
—JMB, GMA Integrated News
