By Lance Agcaoili
CHARO SORIANO and Alexa Micek jumpstarted their bid for the title by scoring rousing victories in the preliminaries of the Beach Volleyball Republic (BVR) National Championship on Thursday at the SM Sands by the Bay in Pasay City.
Soriano and Micek capped their Pool A campaign by trouncing Hawaii’s Tati Sablan and Ivee Ilao, 21-9, 21-15, in the morning and San Beda twins Nieza and Ella Viray, 21-14, 21-17, to move a win shy of advancing to the quarterfinals.
But the team, which won four of seven BVR legs, refused to be complacent.
“We’re not taking any team lightly,” Soriano, one of the founders of BVR, said. “Everyone’s really competitive and each of the players here has a lot of experience in beach volleyball. We’re really respecting all the other teams.”
Soriano and Micek went for the Pool A sweep againsdt Jennifer Cosas and Floremel Rodriguez of Negros late Thursday. The Viray twins ran second in Pool A with a 1-1 win-loss card after beating over Cosas and Rodriguez, 21-15, 18-21, 15-11.
DM Demontaño and Jackie Estoquia of Iloilo also went 2-0 in Pool B. They beat South Western University’s Therese Ramas and Janelle Cabahug , 21-18, 21-17, and Polytechnic University of the Philippines’s Rhea Fermilan and Javen Sabas, 21-12, 21-12.
In Pool C, Bea Tan and Fiola Ceballos and Tagum City’s Lot Catubag and Karen Quilario won their first matches to also send a strong message in the event.
Tan and Soriano beat Che Sindayen and Rainne Fabay of Lyceum of the Philippines University, 21-15, 21-15, while Catubag and Quilario defeated Jonafer San Pedro and Jessa Aranda of Rizal Technological University, 21-14, 21-15.