3 Cebuano teams open bids in Nestea volleyball
Three teams from Cebu will try to make their mark on the pristine beaches of Boracay Island, as they compete against the country’s best beach spikers in the national finals of the 15th Nestea Beach Volley which kicks off today over at the D’Mall.
In the ladies side, the winningest team in Nestea beach volley history, the Southwestern University Lady Cobras, will be gunning for their fifth title behind the pair of Danika Gendraule and Lori May Layno.
Meanwhile, the men’s side will have two teams representing the Queen City of the South with the University of the Visayas tandem of Jade Becaldo and Mike Abria, and the undersized yet feisty University of San Jose-Recoletos duo of Jason Uy and Jade Illut.
The three Cebuano squads will have their hands full with 21 other squads vying for the grand cash prize of P100,000, which goes to the champion teams in each of the divisions. P65,000 will be going to the first runner-up while P35,000 and P22,500 will be awarded to the second and third runners-up, respectively.
The other teams from the Visayas in the ladies division are defending champions Central Philippines University and the University of St. La Salle. The men’s side will also have USLS. Luzon will be represented by De La Salle-Dasmarinas men’s and women’s teams, Dagupan City’s University of Luzon men’s and women’s squads, University of Perpatual Help-Binan, Laguna women’s spikers and Lucena City’s Calayan Educational Foundation University men’s team.
Also seeing action are Mindanao teams, University of Mindanao-Davao, Mindanao State University of Tawi-Tawi, Holy Cross College of Davao and Jose Maria College of Davao and the men and women’s teams of University of Mindanao-Tagum. Lastly, NCR male teams Arellano, University of Sto. Tomas, Far Eastern University and female teams, UST Lady Tigers, De La Salle-Taft, Adamson will also be joining the Finals.
SWU head coach, Jason Gabales, who is also the chief trainer of the UV men’s team, said that his squads are raring to dive into action.
“The SWU players are light right now. Mas maayo ilang conditioning right now although Danika (Gendraule) has an infection on her right hand. Fortunately, she’s left-handed. For UV, we mainly worked on communication skills especially with Mike (Abria) but I think we’re ready for battle,” said Gabales yesterday.
Cebu sports Hall of Famer Grace Antigua on the other hand, believes that her USJ-R wards are ripe for the title even with their neophyte status in the competition.
