CEBU, Philippines - Defending women’s champion Southwestern University (SWU) Lady Cobras and the University of San Carlos (USC) Spiking Warriors raced to their fourth straight wins to top their respective divisions in the Cebu Schools Athletic Foundation Inc. (CESAFI) volleyball tournament yesterday at the Aznar Coliseum.
The USC Warriors of coach Norvie Labuga bolstered their chances of marching into the semifinal after they fended off their toughest rival University of Southern Philippines Foundation (USPF) Panthers in a grueling five-set battle that lasted for two hours.
USC took the first set, 25-23, but USPF bounced back in the second set, 25-18. Seemingly challenged by the setback, USC recovered in the third frame, 25-20, but the gritty USPF mainstays did not give up that easy as they won the fourth, 25-20 to forge a rubbermatch.
In the deciding set, USPF managed to take the lead at 10-8, but Jerone Maestre, Harvey Bernil, Kennith Bensig and Earvin Gallegos put their acts together to power USC to a 15-13 victory.
The University of the Visayas (UV), on the other hand, coasted to its third consecutive victory after crushing the University of Cebu (UC) in four sets, 25-17, 25-22, 16-25, 26-24, behind the attacks of Mart Giducos, Mike Abria, Aldrin dayday, Kenneth Ylanan and Mark Anthony Fernandez.
USPF and defending champion University of San Jose-Recoletos occupied the third and fourth place, respectively.
In the distaff side, the Jordan Paca-mentored SWU trounced the USC Lady Warriors in a three sets, 25-19, 25-21, 20-28.
SWU's triumph was spearheaded by Raphril Aguilar, Princess Anne Pido, Lorie May Layno, Fritzie Aligway, Danika Gendrauli and the six-footer from Dumanjug Marlyn Llagoso.
The USJ-R Lady Jaguars is currently ranked second with a 3-1 win-loss record followed by USC (3-2) and USPF (2-2).
In the secondary division, USJ-R topped the girls division with an immaculate 3-0 record followed by 10-time champion USPF (3-1), while USJ-R and USPF shared the top spot in the boys bracket with identical 3-0 slates.