NU Lady Bulldogs’ Alyssa Solomon over La Salle Green Archers Angel Canino during a 2024 Shakey’s Super League Collegiate Pre-season Championship game. –HANDOUT PHOTO

The two most successful collegiate programs of late in National University and La Salle renew their bitter feud starting on Friday when Game 1 of the Shakey’s Super League Collegiate Preseason Championship gets off the ground at Rizal Memorial Coliseum.

Dominating the UAAP this decade, the three-peat-seeking Lady Bulldogs and the Lady Spikers open the best-of-three championship at 6:30 p.m., not only with each having an eye on the prize but the psychological edge when the 87th season of the country’s biggest collegiate league rolls around later in the year.

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And this will be the baptism of fire for Sherwin Meneses, the multi-titled professional coach who will lock horns with a program that the revered Ramil de Jesus has been in charge of for the last two decades or so.

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“This will be a different atmosphere,” Meneses, who coached Creamline to a historic PVL Grand Slam last season and put the Cool Smashers on target for a record-extending fifth All-Filipino title, said in Filipino. “I think the level of game is also different, although this is a good matchup.”

Alyssa Soloman, Vange Alinsug and the irrepressible Bella Belen will banner National U, also the reigning UAAP queen, as they face a formidable attacking core of the Lady Spikers in Sevana Laput, Amie Provido and the prolific Angel Canino.

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“We have always stressed that we will be going up against a formidable team,” La Salle assistant Noel Orcullo said, also in Filipino. “We will need to stick to our system—to our passing—and we need to stay patient.”

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La Salle eliminated University of Santo Tomas in five gripping sets in the semifinals, leaving the Growling Tigresses in a battle for the bronze with Far Eastern, which got the boot courtesy of the Lady Bulldogs.

That one-game playoff is slated on Sunday.

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