Boracay—Cebuano teams in the men’s and women’s division had contrasting fates at yesterday’s start of the 16th Nestea Beach Volley 2013 National Championship at the powdery white sand beach of Boracay.
While national defending champions University of the Visayas (UV), University of San Jose Recoletos (USJ-R) and the University of Southern Philippines Foundation (USPF) all won their opening matches in the men’s division, the women were not as lucky after Southwestern University (SWU), USPF, and University of San Carlos (USC) all lost their opening games.
In the men’s division, UV, manned by Jade Becaldo and Mike Abria, being the top seed received a first round bye then demolished University of Mindanao Tagum (UMT), 21-19, 21-16.
However, UV will have to face USJ-R represented by Jade Illut and Jason Uy today, for a chance to advance to the semifinals. The loser will be relegated to the loser’s bracket with the tournament following a double round robin format.
USJ-R advanced with an easy 21-11, 21-9 annihilation of Calayan Educational Foundation, Inc. (CEFI) in the first round and a 21-15, 21-16 routing of De La Salle University – Dasmarinas (DLSU-D) in the second round.
UV coach Raffy Briones said that despite the absence of teams from the National Capital Region (NCR), it is still anybody’s game especially that his boys are up against USJ-R who practiced for a week in Moalboal.
No NCR teams won in the Luzon/NCR eliminations held last month.
USPF, on the other hand, will advance to the semifinals if it wins against Holy Cross of Davao College (HCDC) today.
The USPF pair of Edmar Bonono and Edward Ybanez defeated Arellano University (AU), 21-19, 21-19, in the first round and dumped Mindanao State University (MSU), 21-14, 21-15, in the second.
WOMEN’S
DIVISION WOES
The USPF women’s team of Rochelle Rica and Apple Saraum failed to duplicate their men’s achievement after they bowed to DLSU, 13-21, 21-19, 15-5.
USC, on the other hand, failed to get past Adamson University (ADU), 13-21, 8-21, while SWU succumbed to Central Philippines University (CPU), 12-21, 18-21, the same team it booted out in the semifinals during the VisMin eliminations in Moalboal last month.
USC is manned by Anna Krist Capinpin and Exel Ignacio while SWU is composed of Danika Yolanda Gendrauli and April Aguilar.
All three Cebu teams must now win their next matches to keep their title hopes alive.
Matches to be contested this morning will be in the loser’s bracket while the winner’s bracket will be played in the afternoon.