|
Bacolod
City—Defending champion University of the Visayas (UV)
and three-time titlist Southwestern U (SWU) inched
closer to a return trip to Boracay after posting
convincing wins in the second day of the 12th Nestea
Beach Volley National Circuit Visayas Elimination at the
University of Saint La Salle.
The UV
pair of Jusabelle Brillo and Janez Armie Igot picked up
a second-straight victory—a 21-15, 21-15 trashing of
Saint La Salle’s Sheryl June Denila and Jerriz Joy
Solis—to strengthen its bid to repeat in the national
finals of the annual summer event.
The win
put the Cebu-based UV in the semifinals and within a
victory of securing a slot in the nationals slated from
April 24 to 26 in Boracay.
JANELLE TABIO of
Southwestern University sets the ball for partner
Florian Gutierrez.
“Yes,
it’s another win for us but we still have to win one
more, so there’s no reason to celebrate yet,” said
Brillo, a 23-year-old Criminology student from Lapu-Lapu
City. “We also want to win this leg to have an even
better chance in Boracay.”
The
champions of the three regional eliminations will have a
first-round bye in Boracay.
Janelle
Tabio and Florian Gutierrez of SWU, which reigned in the
women’s division from 2002 to 2004 and was the runner-up
in 2007, trounced University of Southern Philippines
Foundation’s (USPF) Herlene Ybarita and Erika Camille
Verano, 21-13, 21-11, to take an unbeaten slate into the
crossover final four of the three-day competition.
UV and
SWU were waiting for the two survivors from the losers’
bracket which were played late afternoon Wednesday.
Brillo
and Igot will meet the winner of the match between
University of San Agustin’s Jackelyn Estoquia and Marian
Joy Jamora and USPF. Tabio and Gutierrez will face the
winner of the do-or-die duel between
University of
Negros Occidental-Recoletos’s
Jenny Torres and Julie Anne Billote and Saint La Salle.
The
winners of the two semifinal matches will dispute the
leg’s crown, while the losers will engage in a playoff
for the third and last ticket to the country’s premier
island summer destination.
In the
men’s division, Foundation U and USPF took different
routes in clinching the first two semifinals seat.
Foundation, the 2001 champion and now being bannered by
Rolando Agus and Arnel Amadeo, had to bounce back from a
shaky start before slipping past San Agustin’s Allan
Dayang and Verdin Paul de Ocampo, 18-21, 21-16, 15-8,
for their second consecutive triumph.
“[San
Agustin] was just too quick and we couldn’t score on our
attacks in the first set,” said 19-year-old Amadeo. “So
we decided to focus on our defense instead. Good thing
it worked and we were able to recover.”
Amadeo
and Agus are looking for their second national finals
stint to improve on their third-place finish last year.
“We’re
more confident now than last year, and we had lots of
time to prepare for this one,” said the 21-year-old Agus.
USPF, on
the other hand, downed fellow Cebu-based University of
San Jose-Recoletos in straight sets, 21-13, 21-19, to
also move to within a win of advancing to the national
finals and to better its fourth-place accomplishment in
the previous edition.
The
defeat sent both San Agustin and San Jose-Recoletos into
the complicated one-loss side of the draw. |
