Mayor Albee Benitez beach volley tilt set to fire off in Bacolod

MANILA, Philippines – A big field of 91 teams are seeing action in the Second Mayor Albee Benitez Beach Volleyball Tournament that starts Saturday, October 12, at the University of St. La Salle Sandbox in Bacolod City.

Top-notch teams from Metro Manila will face squads from the provinces in the competition calendared in the beach volleyball program of the Philippine National Volleyball Federation (PNVF) headed by Ramon “Tats” Suzara.

Ateneo de Manila, University of the Philippines, University of Perpetual Help-Las Piñas, VMA Sturgeon, Far Eastern University, University of Santo Tomas, De La Salle and National University banner the cast from the metro.

Colegio de Santa Ana de Victorias and host venue St. La Salle headline the provincial teams seeing action in the tournament that offers cash prizes to the podium finishers, according to PNVF director Carmela Arcolas-Gamboa.

“It will be nine days of exciting beach volleyball action,” Gamboa said. “And we expect this tournament to further propagate volleyball in line with our program and vision in the PNVF.”

The competitions, Gamboa said, will be this Saturday and Sunday and October 18 to 24 in the 17-under and open categories for men and women.

Verayo’s Grill’s Ran Ran Abdilla and Alexander Cabatuan are the men’s open champion while UST’s  Gen Eslapor and Sophia Pagara are the reigning women’s open titlists in the tournament organized by the Volleyball Association of Negros Island headed by Gamboa with Reylin Verayo as tournament director.

The champion team will bring home P10,000 while the losing finalist gets P7,000 and the third and fourth placers bagging P4,000 and P2,000, respectively.