No stopping FU’s women, men spikers

Unless the others stand up and fight, Foundation University might just go on and win it all in the seventh Nestea Beach Volley University Championships.

In fact, there seems to be no stopping these tall, dark and awesome spikers from achieving that goal after they swept their semis assignments in both the men’s and women’s divisions yesterday before a cheering crowd at the Rockwell Center in Makati City.

"Parang kulang pa nga sa practice dahil ang partner ko first year pa lang sa beach volley," said the sensational Kent Bulabon after he and high-flying Rey Catipay won twice and booked a ticket to the finals of the bouncy summer event in Boracay on April 5 and 6.

Bulabon and Catipay defeated UP Diliman, 21-18, then returned a couple of hours later to whip University of Mindanao-Tagum, 21-13, and keep alive their hopes of winning the title they lost to San Jose Recoletos last year.

"Sana nga sa semis na namin nakalaban ang San Jose para pagdating sa Boracay, medyo madali na ang trabaho," said Bulabon, a jump-serving six-footer and an ideal partner for the 5-foot-7 Catipay, the crowd favorite who even tried to do a 360-degree spike during an earlier match.

The FU girls, Rolyn Marquicias and Janet Tabio, also the losing finalists in Boracay last year, were as unstoppable in beating Philippine Christian University Manila by a mile, 21-3, and Mindanao University by a similar score.

The two squads from Dumaguete, as a matter of fact, have been undefeated so far this year after they posted identical 3-0 slates in the elims of the event sponsored by Smart, Speedo, Great Eastern Hotel, Le Soleil de Boracay, Cebe, Astring-O-Sol, Mikasa, Philippine Airlines, WG&A, Power Plant Mall and Friday’s.

Aside from Foundation U, also sweeping their two matches in the semis and leaving the other scrambling for the finals slots were San Sebastian in the men’s side and Southwestern University in the women’s side.

San Sebastian, the men’s champion in 1998, got past Ateneo de Davao, 21-18, before posting a stunning 21-19 win over reigning champion San Jose Recoletos which can still advance with a win over Ateneo de Davao later in the afternoon.

Southwestern University joined FU in the women’s finals with a 21-8 win over University of Mindanao Tagum and the victory over the favored San Sebastian pair of Jennifer Bohawe and Leilani Altovar.

Bohawe and Altovar, out to give their school the title it won in 2001, bounced back after that painful loss to SU by making short work of their foes from Tagum, 21-9. With a 1-1 record, they are still bound to make it to the finals.

The 12 teams from each division were divided into four groups with the top eight based on their sand points (two for a win, one for a loss and zero for a default) making it to Boracay where the winning pairs will get P100,000 each.