USJ-R ends USPF’s 10-year title run

For the first time in over a decade, a new champion was crowned in the girls’ volleyball event of the Cebu Schools Athletic Foundation Inc. (CESAFI) after the University of San Jose-Recoletos ended the dominance of the University of Southern Philippines Foundation with a 26-24, 25-27, 25-12, 25-16 victory late Tuesday night at the Aznar Coliseum.

USPF had been at the top for all 10 seasons of the Cesafi beating USJ-R in each of the 10 finals.

The two squads were dead even after the first two sets. However, USJ-R started to dominate in the third set by jumping to a 19-10 lead on a service ace by Sheila Bongo and won the set and a 2-1 lead on another service ace by Christine Vergara.

In the fourth set, USJ-R zoomed to a 9-0 lead and after the game was momentarily stopped because of some technical issues regarding the R5 form of USPF, the spiking Lady Jaguars padded their lead to 19-8. But USPF, the proud champions that they were, rallied to within seven points, 13-20 on some terrific shots by Sheena Quino.

But that was all she wrote for the long title reign of the Lady Panthers as a block by Frances Derder finally stopped the bleeding giving USJ-R a 21-13 advantage. The Spiking Jaguars were never seriously threatened the rest of the way.

USJ-R head coach Roldan Potot breathed a sigh of relief after getting the decade-long monkey off his back.

“Balos lang jud. I had the edge lang kay mas intact akong lineup and USPF suffered from the graduation of their key players. Sa sugod, medyo naglisud lang mi because my players were very tense so I told them to loosen up and that made the difference,” Potot said.

USPF BEATS USJ-R IN BOYS FINALS

Meanwhile, in the boys’ finals, USPF prevented USJ-R from scoring a repeat with a 25-18, 26-24, 16-25, 25-13 win.

The Baby Panthers took their underdog status and relished in it as they took the first two sets — the first courtesy of superb strikes from Jason Kent Imperial and the second off an error by USJ-R and another game-winning spike by the former.

USJ-R came fighting back in the third set which it took rather easily but the torrid chase finally took its toll in the fourth as a spent USJ-R squad failed to mount any serious challenge and relinquished its title to USPF.