Defending champion Queen City United (QCU) starts their title retention bid against sister team University of San Carlos (USC) in the curtains-raiser.
Aside from defending its title retention bid, the event also means a lot to Queen City United as well as to the different competing teams as the winner of the tournament will represent Cebu in the National Women's Championships next month in Dumaguete City.
The National Women's Open, on the other hand, will be the qualifying tournament for an international competition in Bacolod slated in the month of September of this year as well.
The fifth squad that was expected to compete in the Aboitiz Cup, the Cebu Under-17 Training pool, will be playing against the four squads only after the championship game. This will serve as an added exposure for the training pool.
Even as the Cebu training pool wins the battle, they are still barred from joining the National Open action.
The Freeman learned that the Cebu training pool may be classified as under-17, but they still could not qualify for the 16-and-above requirement to be able to join the National Open as the players under the pool are ages 15 years olds and below yet.
Aside from the women's open, there are other events lined up under the Aboitiz Cup including the men's open, girl's 16, boy's 12, 15, and 18 and the player's 6, 8 and 10 wherein girls and boys play together in a team.
The other events will be starting out next month yet.