SWU, USJR bag beach volley titles

BORACAY — It’s always sweeter the second time around.

For those playing and rooting for Southwestern University and University of San Jose Recoletos, this was the kind of feeling they surely had yesterday after they topped the women’s and men’s divisions, respectively, in the Nestea Beach Volley 2004 in this enchanting island resort.

Southwestern kept the women’s title it also won last year while USJR regained the men’s crown it won in 2002 and missed last year after a pair of exciting championship showdowns at the Boracay sandcourt fronting the hip and trendy Hey Jude Restaurant.

A big Sunday crowd came to watch as Southwestern U scored a 21-14, 21-13 victory over University of Visayas before USJR carved out a 21-15, 21-15 triumph over hard-fighting newcomer La Salle.

The straight-set victories for the champions did not at all reflect the intensity and excitement of both matches where the players gave it their best despite the terrible summer heat. The crowd was deeply into the game, too, rooting for their respective teams.

For their victories, Southwestern U’s Florian Gutierrez and Marites Natad received P100,000 with P50,000 worth of sports equipment going to their school. USJR’s Michael Simbajon and Jonrey Sasing received the same amount plus the same crown their school won in 2002.

Janez Igot and Joyce Nunez of UV together with Janley Patrona and Hansel Go of La Salle received the P50,000 runnerup prize in the event sponsored by Mikasa, Speedo, SMART, Coppertone, Cebu Pacific, Ayala Center, Power Plant Mall, TGI Friday’s and Le Soleil de Boracay.

Finishing third and bagging P25,000 in the women’s side was 2002 champion Adamson which defeated University of Negros Occidental-Recoletos earlier in the afternoon, 21-9, 21-18. Third best in the men’s side was Foundation University, which survived giant-killer Mindanao State U, 22-20, 21-18.

Despite some flashes of brilliance by their opponents, the Southwestern spikers were in control of the match. They raced to an 11-6 lead in the first set and allowed the UV tandem to close in at 14-17 before wrapping up the set in less than 15 minutes.

In the second set, it was clear that Southwestern was to retain the title, with Gutierrez, a member of last year’s winning pair, and Natad sending their opponents scrambling, tumbling and kissing the white sand trying to reach for the ball. UV simply lost the will to fight after trailing, 11-20.

"We’re very, very happy to keep the title. We’ve played UV many times and so we’ve learned how to pounce on their weaknesses. They’ve always had trouble returning the long balls. So we tried to give them as many of those," said Gutierrez, a lanky but shifty 20-year-old just like her partner.

After wrapping up the match with an overset, Simbajon and Sasing were mobbed by their fans who came all the way from Cebu. They celebrated at centercourt under a rain of party confetti distributed by organizers to spectators.

"Masayang masaya din kami. Whew!" blurted Simbajon as he was being congratulated by the fans.

Notes: For different reasons, both good and bad, this island resort is no longer what it used to be. For one, real estate prices, particularly on the beach front, have gone sky-high from just P300 per square meter in 1986 to P30,000 per sqm today. It means that a 500 sqm lot which used to cost P150,000 will now cost you a whopping P15 million. And there’s hardly anyone selling, they say... For security reasons, members of the Philippine National Police and the Philippine Army — some of them armed with long firearms – are patrolling the 7 km beachfront on a 24-hour basis. Nobody’s complaining though ... The sudden influx of vendors selling fake signature watches or sunglasses is definitely a negative for this island paradise. At night, there are beggars – Aetas who came all the way from Zambales — are seen roaming around the area, some of them even carrying their babies. "They are being rounded up at times and are motored out of the island. But they always manage to come back," said a local ... Places to hang around are just growing by the number, and nightly parties are just getting longer and wilder. Again, nobody’s complaining.