Nestea beach volley tough start for Cebu teams

CEBU, Philippines - It was up and down for the Cebu bets on the first day of the 15th Nestea Beach Volley National Finals yesterday at the Crystal Sand Beach Resort in Boracay Island.

The three Cebu teams all finished with 1-1 win-loss records.

The duo of Danika Yolanda Gendrauli and Lorie May Layno of Southwestern University (SWU) clobbered Elvie Mariquit of Jose Maria College (JMC), 21-19, 21-16, in their first assignment.

They, however, bowed to Luzon Leg champions Maruja Banaticla and Judy Ann Caballejo of the University of Sto. Tomas (UST), 17-21, 21-17, 15-11.

“We need to work on our communication as partners inside the court. We performed to the best of what we have and we will not be discouraged by the loss, we will make it up on our games tomorrow (today) so that our performance will improve,” said Gendrauli.

In the men’s bracket, Jade Becaldo and Mike Abria of the University of the Visayas (UV) also experienced the same fate as they scored a victory in their first match against Aeron Jhon Dona and Jiril Mark Bacani of Calayan Educational Foundation Inc. (CEFI), 21-11, 21-14.

But they were defeated by John Carl Lozada and Chris Salvador of Arellano University (AU). The Luzon champs thumped UV, 17-21, 22-20, 15-11.

The rookie tandem of Jason Uy and Jade Illut of the University of San Jose-Recoletos (USJ-R), on the other hand, also had a great start after beating Mark Gil Alfafara and Henry James Pecaña of the University of Sto. Tomas (UST), 21-19, 21-17.

They were not able to sustain the momentum after they bowed to Daryl Kim Lapiz and Jefty Amora of the University of Mindanao Tagum (UMT). The Lapiz-Amora tandem had to pass through a three-setter battle before defeating Uy and Illut, 13-21, 21-16, 15-11.

“We still have a greater chance, though, since we had an even standing. It just so happened that my players who are still new in beach volley had their first time jitters. They have to work more on the offense and I advised them not to be over confident when they will have the score advantage,” said Cebu Sports Hall of Famer Grace Antigua, coach of USJ-R.

The Cebu teams have must-win matches in order to enter in the crossover semi-finals tomorrow. 

The champion in each division will receive P100,000, the second placer will get P65,000 while the third and fourth placers will have P35,000 and P22,500, respectively. (FREEMAN)