Cebu teams win, then lose in first two games of Nestea Beach Volley National Finals

It was an up-and-down day for the combatants from Cebu as they each came away with a win and a loss after the first day of action in the national finals of the 15th Nestea Beach Volley 2012 yesterday at the D’Mall in Boracay.

Danika Gendrauli and Lori May Layno of the Southwestern University (SWU) started the day off right as they won over the Jose Maria College duo of Elvie Mariquit and Irish Dignadice, 21-19, 21-16.

However, SWU was downed by the hungry Spiking Tigresses duo of Maruja Banaticla and Judy Ann Caballejo of the University of Sto. Tomas (UST) in their afternoon tiff, 21-17, 17-21, 11-15.

The same thing happened for the University of the Visayas (UV) and the University of San Jose-Recoletos (USJ-R) over on the men’s side.

The USJ-R pair of Jade Illut and Jason Uy drew first blood of the day as they upset the UST duo of Mark Gil Alfafara and Henry James Pecana, 21-19, 21-17.

But the wards of Cebu sports Hall of Famer Grace Antigua could not sustain their momentum as they were defeated by the University of Mindanao (UM)-Tagum duo of Daryl Kim Lapiz and Jefty Amora, 21-13, 16-21, 11-15.

The UV pair of Jade Becaldo and Mike Abria suffered the same ignominious fate as they won over the Calayan Educational Foundation Inc. tandem of Aeron Dona and Jiril Mark Bacani, 21-11, 21-14. But the players of head coach Raffy Briones faltered in the afternoon as they were derailed by the Arellano University duo of John Lozada and Chris Salvador, 21-17, 20-22, 11-15.

Afterwards, Antigua lamented the loss and the chance to get a leg up on the competition.

“It’s unfortunate that my players didn’t get to play their games,” she said. “Sayang kaayo kay we were up by four points sa last set pero napako sa 11. Pero sige lang, we’re hoping for a good game tomorrow (today).”