USJ-R rules Shakey’s girls volley regional

MANILA, Philippines - University of San Jose-Recoletos proved steadier than group mate Southwestern U in a back-and-forth decider as it pulled off a thrilling 25-21, 25-17, 25-23 victory to rule the Shakey’s Girls Volleyball League Season 13 Central Visayas leg at the Cebu City Sports Institute in Cebu City recently.

Led by Ma. Christine Dior Vergara and Florani Camacho, the USJ-R spikers rallied from a set down to turn back University of San Carlos, 23-25, 26-24, 25-16, in the semis then held off elims tormentor SWU in the best-of-five title duel to clinch a berth in the national finals set in October.

Vergara went on to bag the MVP plum and the best outside attack award while Camacho took the second best middle blocker honors during awards rites of the four-day tournament, the third of nine regional elims put up Shakey’s for the leading private and public high school girls’ volley teams.

USJ-R also took in two more awards with Chriszelle Anne Caasi bagging the best opposite attacker honors and Mary Gwyneth Duran copping the best setter title.

Other awardees in the event organized by Metro Sports headed by Freddie Infante were SWU’s Lorene Grace Toring (best middle blocker) and Dyan Darantinao (second best outside attacker) and DGO’ Pamela Sumayang (best libero).

USJ-R finished second to SWU in Pool B in group play of the league backed by Asics, Mikasa, Iloilo Doctors’ College and My Phone, winning three and losing one with SWU sweeping the elims, including a 25-14, 20-25, 25-14 victory over USJ-R.

University of San Carlos matched SWU’s feat by sweeping the six-team Pool A with Don Gerardo Llamera Ouano National High clinching the other berth in the crossover semis with a 4-1 card.

But SWU proved too much for the Don Gerardo side in the semis, scoring an easy 25-9, 25-10 victory while USJ-R needed to bounce back from an opening set loss and survived a second set scare to frustrate USC.

Meanwhile, action resumes Saturday with the staging of the NCR elims at the Ynares Sports Arena to be followed by the Northern Mindanao leg on Aug. 28-31 in Cagayan de Oro City; Eastern Visayas on Sept. 3-6 in Tacloban City; Northern Luzon on Sept. 8-11 in Angeles City; Southern Mindanao on Sept. 14-18 in Tagum City; and Southern Luzon on Sept. 23-26 in Biñan City.