UAAP Finals: Master mentor vs student

MANILA, Philippines — The UAAP Season 88 women’s volleyball finals will be a duel more than just among the country’s top collegiate stars.

Looming as an equally interesting battle is from the sidelines as the “student” in National U’s Regine Diego faces her former “master mentor” in La Salle’s Ramil de Jesus when both squads lock horns tomorrow at the Mall of Asia Arena for Game 1 of the best-of-three series.

Diego played for De Jesus in La Salle back in the 2000s and got her first pro coaching gig for F2 Logistics under De Jesus in 2023 before being named as the head coach of the Lady Bulldogs this season.

It’s the fourth title showdown between the Lady Bulldogs and the Lady Spikers in the past five UAAP seasons but the first between the master and her student.

And oddly as it may, it will be Diego who has a bigger stake to defend as the Lady Bulldogs march into the battlefield with a rare three-peat feat in mind.

“Hopefully, I get to play at par with him,” said Diego ahead of the titanic duel at 6 p.m. after surviving the stepladder Final Four with a 20-25, 26-24, 26-24, 25-21 win over Santo Tomas last weekend.

“I hope I get there (at his level). He’s always going to be one of my inspirations. I’m grateful to be one of his players before so I know it’s going to be very hard. Wala namang madaling finals.”

Diego, also a former head coach of NU Lady Bullpups and the Philippine girls’ volleyball team, replaced Sherwin Meneses in the offseason for a continuous coaching rigodon in NU.

She’s the fourth mentor in NU’s stable that nonetheless made the finals in five straight seasons after also parading Karl Dimaculangan and Norman Miguel, who produced championships as well.

On the opposite end is a common denominator in De Jesus, who managed to steal one from the Lady Bulldogs’ dynasty led by Bella Belen in Season 85 with then Rookie-MVP Angel Canino spearheading the way.

It was all NU from there, winning back-to-back titles before the vengeful and intact La Salle led by Canino and Shevana Laput swept through the entire opposition this season, 14-0, to score an outright finals berth for the first time since 2014.

It’s the 21st finals appearance for De Jesus and La Salle in almost 30 years of dominance, chasing a 13th title as holder of the country’s winningest collegiate volleyball program before NU’s emergence in the last five years.

NU has built a dynasty in that span but for Diego, protecting that queendom against a dynasty himself in De Jesus is the ultimate goal, regardless of a heavy underdog tag without Belen and company already.