Vis-Min elims merger results in tougher Nestea beach tilt

A total of 64 teams will gather in Moalboal town, southwest of Cebu as the 16th Nestea Beach Volley 2013 VisMin leg kicks off this Friday and ends on Saturday in barangay Saavedra, sitio Bas Dako.

This is the first time that the Visayas and Mindanao eliminations are merged and the second time that the regional eliminations will be held in Moalboal.

Jedessa Leyte, marketing promotions and events manager for Nestea Beach, said during the press conference held at the Cebu City Sports Center yesterday that they have combined the Visayas and Mindanao eliminations because the goal of Neste Beach is to come up with more competitive and challenging matches.

“Combining the two eliminations will also mean a bigger and better event because it will draw more participants,” Leyte explained.

Games will indeed be more exciting as the tournament will introduce a single elimination format, according to national technical director Otie Camangian.

EXCITING FORMAT

Having a knockout format will mean that all matches will be taken seriously.

He said that they will make sure that the top teams from Visayas and Mindanao will not meet in the first of five rounds.

The winners will advance to the next round until one team emerges as the champion in the men’s and women’s divisions.

The top six VisMin men’s and women’s teams will faceoff with the top six men’s and women’s squads from the National Capital Region (NCR) and Luzon eliminations in the national finals in Boracay from April 18 to 20 with P100,000 in cash up for grabs.

Last year, the Nestea men’s division had an all-Cebuano finals with eventual champions University of the Visayas (UV) defeating University of San Jose Recoletos.

UV coach Raffy Briones, who also attended the press conference, said that his team is prepared to retain its title.

“We have all the pressure but we are prepared. If the other teams are prepared then we are also very much prepared because we are the defending champions,” Briones replied when asked if this year’s eliminations will be tougher with the presence of Mindanao teams.

Meanwhile, regional organizer Ricky Ballesteros said that a motorboat race will be held this Saturday as a sidelight to the event.

Motorboats will race from Moalboal to Negros and back to add fun to the event.

Last time, Ballesteros said they held a beach soccer but they decided not to hold it this time because there were a lot who got injured.