DLSU wins third place, Most Spirited at NUCC 2026

De La Salle University did not just survive the bracket at NUCC 2026. It walked away from Greenfield City Sportsfield in Santa Rosa, Laguna with third place in the collegiate division and the Most Spirited Award, a combo that says plenty about where the program stands right now.

DLSU fell 9-7 to UPD x UPM in the semifinals, then reset quickly enough to beat UPLB 11-8 in the battle for third. In a seven-team collegiate field, that was enough to put the Green-and-White on the podium and keep its name in the medal conversation through the final whistle.

The structure of the tournament made every result count. Teams played through a round-robin before the top four advanced to semifinals and placement games, with the collegiate final played to 13 under the event rules. That format rewards depth, consistency and recovery, and DLSU showed two of the three when it needed them most: it could not get past the UPD x UPM pairing in the semifinal, but it answered with a cleaner finish against UPLB to secure third.

The Most Spirited Award matters here because ultimate has always judged programs on more than just the scoreboard. DLSU’s weekend says the team still understands that balance better than most. It is one thing to defend hard and take third in a compact, high-stakes bracket. It is another to do it while earning the sport’s spirit recognition, which separates clubs that merely compete from those that help define the culture around the field.

NUCC is hosted annually by the UP Diliman Ultimate Organization, and the event has long been positioned as a showcase for college and high school teams across the Philippines. In 2026, the collegiate division once again featured seven teams, and DLSU’s result added another strong line to a program history that already includes a championship run over UPD in 2015 by a 15-13 scoreline. Third place this year may not have matched that title, but paired with Most Spirited, it underlined the same point: DLSU remains a standard-bearer in NUCC, both in how it plays and how it carries itself.