New Zealand pair gains ‘Fit to Hit’ beach volley plum

MANILA, Philippines - Rain or shine, Julia Tilley and Shauna Polley from New Zealand proved unbeatable in the first “Fit to Hit” Philippine Beach Volley Invitational at the Sands SM by the Bay.

They won all their five matches in the three-day event, never dropping a set in winning the crown and the bragging rights of being champions of this inaugural event.

In the final, Tilley and Polley completely dominated Wing Tong To and Yung Yung Koo of Hong Kong B, 21-8, 21-7. It was over in less than 30 minutes.

The 26-year-old Tilley insisted it wasn’t that easy.

“No. It wasn’t. Anything can happen in beach volleyball,” said Tilley, all smiles just moments after the victory in the event put up by Solar Sports.

“We had to stay focused and serious. As you saw, we didn’t want to give them too many points. We tried to win every point,” she said.

After the final point, the Kiwi pair whooped it up in front of the good Sunday crowd that braved both the intense heat and then the rain on the final day.

The Hong Kong pair gave it all in the battle between two undefeated teams but just didn’t have the skills to match the top team from New Zealand.

In the battle for third place, Wai Yan Lo andf Rachel Tam of Hong Kong A scored a hard-earned 23-21, 21-17 win over Charo Soriano and Alexa Micek of Philippines A.

The crowd rooted for the hosts and almost carried them to a first-set win. But the visitors had more steam to win the battle.

The event drew eight teams from four countries – two each from Hong Kong and Malaysia, three from the Philippines and one from New Zealand.