Fabio Menta returns to coaching as new UP women’s volleyball mentor

MANILA, Philippines – Cue the 10-year challenge.

For the first time since 2016, Fabio Menta will be assuming a head coaching role as the UP Fighting Maroons pin their hopes on his mentorship towards a return to the Final Four.

UP last made the playoffs a decade ago in Season 78 with a team led by Tots Carlos, Isa Molde, Nicole Tiamzon, Ayel Estrañero, and Kathy Bersola.

Menta, 64, last coached the Foton Pilipinas in the 2016 Asian Women’s Club Volleyball Championship and succeeds Benson Bocboc, who steered the Maroons to a 6-8 record in Season 87, where the team finished sixth.

The Italian will be handling a retooled team led by graduating Niña Ytang, Irah Jaboneta, and Joan Monares, as well as second-year player Kianne Olango and foreign student-athlete Ali Sarah Otukugu.

“He brings a good system which the team needs. We know what to do inside and outside the court because of that good system,” Jaboneta said in a press release on Thursday, January 22.

The team is also set to field transferees Casiey Dongallo, Jelai Gajero, and Kizzie Madriaga who were part of the UE Lady Warriors core which transferred to UP in early 2025.

“We are excited to see how coach Fabio will bring out the best in this young and very promising roster that we have,” said UP Office for Athletics and Sports Development director Bo Perasol.

“All of us in UP believe and trust that the Final Four is within our reach,” Perasol added in Filipino.

Menta, who had previous overseas head coaching stints in Italy, the Bahamas, and the Cook Islands, was appointed by UP sponsor Strong Group Athletics as its consultant in February 2025.

Under the SGA banner, Menta served as consultant for Farm Fresh and ZUS Coffee in the PVL. – Rappler.com