‘WEAK USPF’ RULES CESAFI BEACH VOLLEY
Fourth seed USPF completes Cinderella run, beats USJ-R to win Cesafi boys beach volleyball title
The University of Southern Philippines-Foundation (USP-F) and University of San Jose-Recoletos (USJ-R) came out with their the upset ax to come out as the biggest winners in the Cebu Schools Athletic Foundation Inc. (Cesafi) beach volleyball secondary division tournament.
The USP-F completed a Cinderella-run after sneaking past defending champion University of Cebu (UC), 21-17, 21-13, in the secondary boys’ championship match at the Fort San Pedro beach volleyball field last Sunday.
The Baby Jaguars, meanwhile, prevented a USP-F sweep with a 21-19, 21-10 victory in the secondary girls.
Ranked fourth after the elimination, the USP-F boys’ needed a closely-contested three sets to overcome the mighty Southwestern University (SWU-Phinma) in the semis last Saturday for a shot against UC in the final.
The fine play for the USP-F boys’ team continued against UC.
With the score tied at 13, MVP Mechel Remulta and Edmar Malata connived for a 4-1 minirun for a 17-14 edge. The action went back-and-forth before Remulta scored a witty drop for a 20-17 lead.
UC tried to retaliate but the attack went outside, giving USP-F the first set, 21-17.
In the second set, UC looked like it had lost steam after a sor- ry loss in the first set, while USP-F remained potent with a telling 7-1 run highlighted by Malata’s strong hits for a 17-8 lead.
USP-F pulled away as Remulta put the icing on the cake with a power hit, 21-13.
“Actually most of the teams wanted to face us because they think that among the four teams (in the semis) we were the weakest,” said coach Francis Louie Aboc.
“It’s really fulfilling, an achievement for us. This is totally unexpected. We never thought that the boys’ team will deliver for us. Hats off to the players for working hard and practicing despite rainy or sunny weather,” said Aboc.
On the other hand, USJ-R girls’ team tasted its first championship in four years after beating the gutsy USP-F in two straight sets.
The first set was very close with neither team leading by more than three points in the early part of the game.
It was in the later part that USJ-R rallied with three straight points with attacks from MVP Krizzia Anne Caasi and Shantal Rodriguez to make it 20-16.
But USP-F refused to give up and converted three straight to trim down USJ-R’s lead to one, 2019, before Caasi took over with the perfect hit to take first set, 21-19.
USJ-R rushed out to 14-5 edge in the second set and ended the game with a dominating 7-2 run for a 21-10 win.
“It’s unexpected win for us. The players work hard for this and this is championship is the fruit of their hard work. I’m proud of the team and they deserve to win,” said coach James Kelvin Lawas.
The USJ-R girls’s team was composed of Rodriguez, Caasi and Chriszelle Anne Caasi.
Lawas said that the team was only ranked third after the elimination. The two losses in the elimination came from UC and USP-F.
USJ-R ended up with a sweet revenge, beating UC in the semis and USP-F in the final to reign as the new champion in the girls’ secondary division. /