Sport Volleyball | Founded 1938 | |
 | ||
No. of teams 30 teams:
8 - Men's
8 - Women's
8 - Boys'
7 - Girls' Most recent
champion(s) Season 78 (2015-16)
Men's
– Ateneo Blue Eagles
Women's
–De La Salle University
Boys'
– NU Bullpups
Girls'
– NU Lady Bullpups | ||
The University Athletic Association of the Philippines volleyball tournament is divided into four divisions, namely men's, women's, boys' and girls'. Volleyball is a mandatory sport in the women's division. The UAAP volleyball tournament was formerly held in the first semester of the school year. Then in Season 69 (school year 2006-2007), the UAAP Board decided that it be moved to the second semester. This decision was made so that the games can be televised to improve its popularity.
Contents
Tournament format
The tournament begins with a double round robin eliminations, where a team meets its opponent twice in a season. A semi-finals round composed of the top four teams follows, after which the top two teams meet in a best-of-three series Finals.
In the semi-Finals, the top four teams based on team standings (and tie-breakers, if applicable) from the elimination round battle for a Finals slot. The two top seeds have a twice-to-beat advantage, that is they must be beaten twice in order to be eliminated. The lower seeds, on the other hand, are eliminated when they are defeated once. The surviving teams face off in a best-of-three Finals, where the team which notches two wins wins the championship.
If a team wins all of the games in the elimination round, the step ladder format is used, where the unbeaten team has a bye to the Finals. The third and fourth seed will figure in a knockout game; the winner of that game will face the second seed which has a twice-to-beat advantage. The surviving team meets the first seed team in the Finals. From 2012 to 2015, the first seed team holds a thrice-to-beat advantage (or an automatic 1-0 lead in a best-of-five Finals) for sweeping the elimination round. Starting 2016, all volleyball Finals series will be a best-of-three affair, but the rest of the regular and step ladder semi-Finals formats will remain in place.
Early years
The UAAP founded by FEU, NU, UP and UST in 1938.
First expansion
Adamson, MCU, UM and UE added; only Adamson and UE were retained.
Second expansion
Ateneo added.
Third expansion
De La Salle added.
Final Four era
Current tournament format introduced.
Number of Championships by School
*Winningest School
**MCU pulled-out of the league in 1962.
Statistics (Final Four Era)
Final Four
The Final Four for Volleyball was instituted in season 56 (1993–94), the year, the UAAP declared that there will be a Final Four in all mandatory sports. In 2004, there was no Final Four since the La Salle Lady Spikers swept the eliminations and were awarded the championship outright, becoming the only volleyball varsity team in the UAAP to win the championship outright by winning all its elimination games. In 2008, following the loss of the UE Red Warriors to the DLSU Green Archers in the Finals series of the UAAP season 70 basketball tournament despite UE's elimination round sweep, the UAAP Final Four format was modified for elimination sweep cases. The stepladder format was introduced. In the stepladder format, the no. 1 seed team was automatically qualified to a Finals berth with a thrice-to-beat incentive (and thus reformatting the best-of-three series to a 1-0 incentive lead in a best-of-five series). The other three teams in the top four rankings underwent play-off games to determine which will qualify for a Finals berth. Starting 2016, the thrice-to-beat incentive was replaced by a best-of-three Finals series for all sporting events in the UAAP (except football. Other Final Four rules remain in place.
The earlier stepladder format, however, was only utilized starting from the UAAP women's volleyball championship series in 2012. Despite the UST men's volleyball team's 14-0 perfect elimination round record in 2009), they played based on the regular Final Four format, and became the only UAAP varsity team to achieve a perfect 17-0 season sweep record. Currently, only the UST Growling Tigers, DLSU Lady Spikers and the ADMU Lady Eagles achieved the 14-0 elimination sweeps record in the UAAP Volleyball Final Four era, but while DLSU holds the most number of annual elimination sweeps within the 2008–present form of the Final Four era (at 2 seasons), Ateneo emerged as the league's lowest seeded volleyball team (by 2014) to win the championship (where they played through the stepladder playoffs format and won over 5 knock-out games), and first overall volleyball varsity team to both win the championship and achieve a perfect 16-0 season sweeps record (from elimination round playoffs to championship series) by 2015.
Season rankings
The volleyball tournaments in Junior's division started in Season 57 (1994–1995). The number of schools participating in the girls' division increased to six in season 76 (2013–14) when Adamson University fielded a team. In season 77 (2014–15), the number of schools participating in the boys' and girls' divisions increased to seven each as FEU fielded a team in both divisions.
Rankings in the Final Four era
Beach volleyball champions
Beach Volleyball tournament was first introduced as a demonstration sport (DS) in Season 69.