Nestea beach volley 2004 up at Rockwell

The beauty and excitement of beach volleyball come to play starting today when the Luzon eliminations of the Nestea Beach Volley 2004 begin at the makeshift sand court of the posh Rockwell Center in Makati.

A total of 72 teams representing 46 colleges and universities from across the country will see action in the summer event, which offers over half a million pesos in cash prizes plus the lofty billing as the country’s top beach volley pairs.

The three-day Luzon elims will feature 32 teams – 16 each in the men’s and women’s sides. The Visayas elims will have 24 teams vying while the Mindanao elims will have 16 teams trying to smash their way to the finals.

Heeding the Nestea call for generous sponsors were Speedo, Cebu Pacific, Mikasa, Coppertone, Shakey’s, SMART, Power Plant Mall, Ayala Center in Cebu and TGI Friday’s.

Unlike last year when all regional elims were held at Rockwell Center of the Power Plant Mall, this year’s games will cater to a bigger audience with the holding of the Visayas and Mindanao elims at the booming Ayala Center in Cebu City March 12-14.

The top four men’s and women’s teams from all three regions advance to the semis and the finals. More than the competition, the crucial phase will offer participants three glorious, fun-filled days at the island paradise of Boracay April 14-16.

The defending champions are San Sebastian Manila in the men’s side and Southwestern University in the women’s side.

San Sebastian also emerged champion in 1998. For Southwestern, last year’s title was its first.

The winning pairs will receive a whopping P100,000 each with P50,000 worth of sports equipment going to their respective schools. Second place is worth P50,000 and third place P25,000. The cash prizes will be sent directly to the schools.

While the event puts premium in teamwork, individual awards will also be at stake like the Most Valuable Player and the best scorer, spiker, setter, server, blocker, digger and passer. The winners must come from schools that reach at least the semis.

To further drum up the event, Nestea has put up the Nestea Beach Volley Million Plunge raffle promo where the big winner gets to watch the Boracay episode with three of his/her friends — with a cool P1 million in the pocket.

One way to join is to text in the raffle code found in specially marked packs of Nestea. A glass or a pitcher of Nestea ordered in participating restaurants will entitle consumers to scratch cards. They are also offered on every SMART 64K Super SIM 2 purchase.