SWU EYES FIFTH STRAIGHT CROWN AGAINST USJ-R
Top teams advance to women’s beach volleyball finals, while top bets in high school crash out
Four- time defending champion Southwestern University ( SWU- Phinma) and University of San Jose Recoletos ( USJ- R) will clash anew in the Cebu Schools Athletic Foundation Inc. ( Cesafi) women’s beach volleyball championship today. Both SWU- Phinma and USJ- R cruised to easy wins in their semifinals match at the Fort San Pedro beach court in Cebu City yesterday.
The four-time defending champion Southwestern University (SWU-Phinma) and University of San Jose Recoletos (USJ-R) will clash anew in the Cebu Schools Athletic Foundation Inc. (Cesafi) women’s beach volleyball championship today.
SWU-Phinma and USJ-R cruised to easy wins in their semifinals matches at the Fort San Pedro beach court yesterday.
No.1 USJ-R booted out University of Southern Philippines-Foundation (USP-F), 21-16, 21-10, to advance to the championship game.
Leading by a set, the USJ- R spikers did not let their guard down and played solidly in the second and broke away with a 14- 6 lead after a 7- 1 run highlighted by two aces from Paula Marie Maninang.
Maninang again scored three straight while Linlyn Torado had two consecutive hits to suck the energy out of USP-F, 19-9, before the set ended at 21-10.
It was the same story for No. 2 SWU-Phinma smashers as they thrashed third-seeded University of Cebu (UC), 21-12, 21-7.
The tandem of Cesafi beach volleyball rookies Dyuan Darantinao and Ivie Bautista proved to be lethal as they sparked an 8-1 blitz to pull away, 16-9, in the first set.
Bautista scored a strong cross before Darantinao connected a power hit to close the first set, 21-12.
SWU dominated the second set and ended the game with a 6-0 run capped by Darantinao’s game-sealing spike, 21-7.
“Dili ko kasulti sa among chances for a five-peat. This is a new team for me because two players Bautista and Darantinao are on its first year only in Cesafi beach volleyball. It’s only Janelle Cabahug who’s played for five years,” said SWU head coach Dave Arreza.
SWU-Phinma suffered its only defeat in this season in the hands of USJ-R, who remains undefeated in this year’s Cesafi beach volleyball.
“They played OK in the semis despite the lack of practice. The combination of Paula (Maninang) and Liniyn (Torado) is good. I hope the chemistry gets better in the championship game, and also I hope we will be able to ma- terialize the strategy,” said USJ-R’s coach Grace Antigua.
Arreza said that it’s going to be the fifth time that they will face USJ-R in the women’s beach volleyball championship.
“We have the chemistry but we lack the experience. Our strategy is to attack on the player who’s not on a great condition,” said Arreza.
For Antigua, it will be the mental game and focus that will be the key for winning.
“Beach volleyball is not about power, it’s more on mental and consistency. The players must take its time and not hurry the plays,” she said.
In the girls’ secondary division, USP-F and USJ-R will slug it out for the girls’ title after USP-F defeated defending champion SWU, 21-14, 21-19, and third-seeded USJ-R upset second-seeded UC, 21-13, 21-7, in the semis. /