Patriots head Petron beach volley winners

PUERTO PRINCESA , Philippines – De La Salle-Dasmariñas standouts Wensh Tiu and Regina Tungol posted a 21-6 victory over the Philippine Maritime Institute’s Carmi Risare and Ma. Sally Emelia Sanchez in the 2009 Petron Ladies’ beach volleyball tournament’s fourth and final leg at the Baywalk here.

The Lady Patriots displayed better court coverage and superb placement shots to lead the opening-day winners in the circuit’s final leg, dubbed the Battle of the Champions.

Also pulling off a win were second-leg winner Pau Genido and new partner and fellow UP student Amanda Isada, who crushed PSBA’s Andrea Angela Quigencio and Dyrene Rose Benicio, 21-12.

Puerto Princesa’s Vanessa Onda and Stanely Alipoon clobbered fellow-Palaweño Ganilen Clarianes and Clianne Gacuan, 21-13, while Ateneo’s Sharah So and Asia Urquico pulled off a 21-18 win over UE’s Jimberly Dawn Dizon and April Ann Soriano.

The holding of the Petron volleyball circuit’s final leg, sponsored by Mikasa Balls, Speedo and the City of Puerto Princesa and backed by Petron, Speedo and Mikasa, and coinciding with Mayor Edward Hagedorn’s birthday celebration, is part of the city’s thrust as a top sports tourism destination in the country.

It also aims to promote Puerto Princesa’s Subterranean Underground River as a world heritage site and one of the finalists in the global search for the New 7 Wonders of Nature.

The tournament’s top four teams from the two groups will slug it out in a crossover semifinal round, with the winners advancing to a best-of-three winner-take-all showdown later in the evening.