St. Benilde, PCU spikers triumph

The reigning champions in the NCAA quickly made their presence felt yesterday at the start of the ninth Nestea Beach Volley Luzon eliminations at the sun-baked sand-court of La Salle Greenhills.

St. Benilde, the men’s NCAA champion, blew hot and cold to beat Lyceum, 21-14, while PCU-Manila, the women’s NCAA champion, whipped PATTS Aeronautical School, 21-10.

The opening day of this annual event presented by Nestle signals the start of this year’s battle for beach volley supremacy among 72 teams from Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao.

The Luzon eliminations will last two more days with the top four teams in the men’s and women’s divisions earning slots to the semis and grand finals in Boracay on May 5-7. There are 16 men’s and 16 women’s teams from Luzon.

The Visayas and Mindanao eliminations will be held April 5-7 also at La Salle Greenhills, probably the only school in Metro Manila that maintains its own sand-court.

Other early winners in the men’s division were San Sebastian Cavite over La Salle, 21-16; UP over University of Cordilleras, 21-14; and FEU over Ateneo, 21-9.

In the women’s side, also scoring were St. Benilde over Lyceum, 21-12; Adamson over San Sebastian Cavite, 21-15; University of Baguio over St. Louis University, 21-5; Ateneo over Letran, 21-15; FEU over St. Jude College, 21-11; University of Asia Pacific, 21-17; and La Salle over UP, 21-10.

Arnold Laniog and Janley Patrona of St. Benilde are tipped to go all the way to Boracay despite the fact that they haven’t had any practice since winning the NCAA title over PCU last month.

"Kulang sa practice kaya as much as possible, gusto lang naming manalo na wala masyadong pressure. We need to conserve our energy," said Laniog, the MVP awardee in the recent NCAA season.

Patrona, however, seemed to be the better player yesterday, scoring kills with impunity and putting on a good defense. He said reigning Nestea champion San Jose Recoletos remains as the team to beat this year.

"We heard they’ve been practicing for over a month now on the sand-court unlike us," said Patrono who saw action for La Salle last year and led the team to a runner-up finish in Boracay.

This year’s sponsors are Speedo, Mikasa, Cebu Pacific, Hey Jude Resorts, La Salle Greenhills, Villa de Oro, Coppertone, Boracay Regency, Le Soleil, Power Plant Mall, National Sports Grill and Click the City.com.

Champion teams will receive P100,000 each and P50,000 worth of sports equipment for their respective schools.