UM-Tagum pair dominates Nestea beach volleyball

CEBU CITY — Just by looking at their warmup uniforms, it was quite easy to say that Liezle Manatad and Maylin Que make up the best women’s beach volley pair from Mindanao.

With the Philippine flag patched on their jerseys, the two players from University of Mindanao-Tagum lived up to expectations yesterday by topping the Mindanao eliminations of the Nestea Beach Volley 2004 at the busy Ayala Center here.

Manatad and Que, it turned out, are members of the UM-T squad that won for the Philippines the gold medal in women’s volleyball of the 2003 BIMP-EAGA (Brunei-Indonesia-Malaysia-Philippines East Asian Growth Area) Championships in Puerto Princesa, Palawan.

"We’ve been playing together for quite some time now," said Manatad in Filipino while the closing matches of the Mindanao eliminations were being played at the sun-baked sand court of the Ayala Center.

"But this is the first time we’ve been partnered in beach volleyball," added the bouncy, dark-skinned 19-year-old.

Being new in beach volley, however, didn’t show for the UM-T tandem that went undefeated in three games. They first defeated University of Mindanao, 21-15, and then drove past Western Mindanao State U, 21-13, before surviving Mindanao State University, 21-17.

Manatad even sprained her left ankle after a powerful jump serve in UM-T’s final match but managed to continue the fight after taking a five-minute injury timeout. They were trailing 13-14 when the game was stopped because of the injury.

"It was good that I was able to recover," she said, showing mediamen her injured foot which, she hopes, would be back in better shape heading to the April 16-18 Boracay event offering P100,000 each to the men’s and women’s champions.

Also advancing in the women’s side of the Nestea event sponsored by Speedo, Mikasa, Cebu Pacific, Shakey’s Coppertone, SMART, Power Plant Mall, Ayala Center in Cebu and TGI Friday’s were Ateneo de Davao (3-0), Holy Cross of Davao (2-1) and Mindanao State U (2-1).

In the men’s division, UM-T also went undefeated in three games but only ranked second behind Mindanao State U (3-0) which had a better quotient. The two other men’s teams that will go to Boracay are University of Mindanao (2-1) and Ateneo de Davao (2-1).

These eight Mindanao squads will be joined by the same number of representatives from Luzon and the Visayas, including San Jose Recoletos, last year’s runner-up in the men’s division, and Southwestern U, the reigning champion in the women’s side.

San Sebastian College, which won the men’s crown and the P100,000 purse last year, failed to get past the Luzon eliminations at the Rockwell Center recently, meaning a new men’s champion will be crowned this year.

The Luzon qualifiers are La Salle, UP Diliman, St. Benilde and FEU in the men’s side and St. Benilde, Letran, University of Baguio and Adamson in the women’s side. From the Visayas are Iloilo Doctors College, San Jose Recoletos, Foundation U and University of Negros Occ. Recoletos (men’s) and University of the Visayas, Southwestern U, University of San Agustin, and UNO-R (women’s).