USPF, USJ-R take centerstage as CESAFI volleyball on today

CEBU, Philippines - Defending champions University of Southern Philippines Foundation (USPF) and University of San Jose-Recoletos (USJ-R) are all set for their title-retention bids as the Cebu Schools Athletic Foundation Inc. (CESAFI) volleyball event kicks off today at the Aznar Coliseum.

In the men’s division, the USJ-R Spiking Jaguars of Cebu Sports Hall of Famer coach Grace Antigua will take on the University of Cebu in the first game scheduled at 8 am.

“I just told the boys to work hard and dili mokumpiyansa because we had a lot of tough competitors this year. We are hoping that we could retain the title but we really don’t know what will happen next kay lingin ang bola,” said Antigua.

Last year’s runner-up University of San Carlos (USC), which is now manned by team captain-turned-coach Roderick Arenasa, will go up against the Cebu Doctors’ University (CDU) in the second match of the day.

Completing the morning games is the showdown between the University of the Visayas (UV) and the Cebu Institute of Technology (CIT).

In the women’s bracket, the Jordan Paca mentored-USPF will tackle CDU in the opening duel of the afternoon session.

“I trust my players that they will strive hard to win every game and hopefully defend our title,” said Paca.

The other force to reckon with in the distaff side is Southwestern University (SWU).

“We trained very hard for this event and we’re happy that the long wait is over. We are aiming for the women’s title this year because we have not won the championship for quite a while now,” said SWU coach Joarem Yu.

The SWU belles will tackle UV, while USJ-R squares off afgainst UC in the final battle of the day. – THE FREEMAN