|
Bacolod
City—In a rematch of last year’s national finals,
reigning women’s title-holder University of the Visayas
(UV) repeated over provincial rival Southwestern
University (SWU), 16-21, 21-15, 15-13, to rule the
Visayas leg of the 12th Nestea Beach Volley National
Circuit on Thursday at the University of St. La Salle (USLS)
sand court.
University of
Southern Philippines Foundation
(USPF), meanwhile, made it a sweet sweep for Cebu teams
as it subdued Foundation University (FU), 21-19, 21-16,
to top the men’s division.
By
winning the last of three main island qualifiers, the UV
pair of Jusabelle Brillo and Janez Armie Igot, intact
and as potent as the one that won last year, earned a
huge boost in their back-to-back bid as they will have a
first-round bye in the National Finals slated from April
24 to 26 in Boracay.
JACKELYN ESTOQUIA of
University of San Agustin slams one in.
“This is
exactly our goal coming into this tournament–to win the
leg to have an even better chance in Bora,” said Igot.
“So we’re very happy that we got what we wanted, and we
can now focus on the main tournament.”
“We
still have lots to improve on, so when we go back to
Cebu , we’ll immediately continue our training,” added
Brillo.
UV and
SWU came into the finals having won all their previous
matches in straight sets, including the 21-14, 21-13
trashing of USPF for the former and the 21-13, 21-13
dumping of
University of
Negros Occidental-Recoletos
for the latter in the semifinals.
A third
set was needed to decide who will lead the Visayas
delegation to the country’s premier summer destination.
It
looked like the SWU tandem of Janelle Tabio and Florian
Gutierrez will exact revenge against the couple who
denied their school its fourth Nestea crown in six years
in 2007, when they took the opening set.
But as
they went for the kill, Brillo and Igot got back their
bearing to snatch the second frame and then outwitted
them in the deciding set to quell their upset try.
“Sayang,”
uttered the visibly dejected Gutierrez. “We wanted to
win this leg to boost our confidence.”
Despite
the setback, SWU, which reigned in the women’s division
from 2002 to 2004, still has a shot at the national
title as they also booked a ticket to Boracay, along
with USPF, whose female duo of Herlene Ybarita and Erika
Camille Verano blasted UNO-R’s Jenny Torres and Julie
Anne Billote in the battle for third place.
UV, SWU
and USPF—all Cebu-based squads—will mix it up with
Mindanao qualifiers University of Mindanao (UM)-Tagum,
Holy Cross of Davao College (HCDC) and UM-Davao, as well
as Luzon’s Adamson, Far Eastern U (FEU) and Lyceum of
the Philippines in the Boracay tourney.
“We
didn’t expect to win this leg since we’ve been playing
together for only five months,” said Jonrey Sasing
moments after he and partner James Ryan Rivera made it
two-for-two for USPF.
“We just
relied on our individual skills. Good thing it proved to
be enough here. But we know it won’t be in Bora, so we
have develop more chemistry in time for the finals,”
added Sasing, a transferee from University of San Jose-Recoletos
(USJ-R) and the other half of the 2004 champion team.
Before
taking the scalp of FU’s Rolando Agus and Arnel Amadeo,
Sasing and Rivera trounced
USA’s
Allan Dayang and Verdin Paul de Ocampo, 21-13, 21-12, in
the semifinals. FU, the 2001 champion, entered the
finals after turning back host USLS, 21-11, 21-19, in
the other Final-Four match.
USLS’s
Marlon Luces and Mark Sabusap edged out USA’s Dayang and
de Ocampo, 17-21, 21-18, 15-11, in the playoff for the
third and last national finals slot to join USPF and FU
in Boracay, where they will be joined by qualifiers
Capitol U, UM-Tagum and HCDC from Mindanao, and FEU,
Philippine Christian University and University of
Perpetual Help Dalta System from Luzon. |
