Sure semis seat
SWU 1st to barge into Cesafi volley semis; USJ-R, USPF advance in men’s side
A POWERFUL hit in the center of the court from Charrylou Wave Paden punctuated the Southwestern University (SWU) Lady Cobras’ elimination round dominance in the Cebu Schools Athletic Foundation Inc. (Cesafi) volleyball tournament, as they won over the University of Southern Philippines Foundation (USPF), 25-20, 25-19, 25-20, yesterday at the University of San Carlos Gym.
The Lady Cobras ended the elimination round with five wins in as many games.
Paden, who is a graduating student of SWU, made her presence at the close of the third set, when she unleashed her strongest attacks leaving the Lady Panthers struggling to save her shot. Paden was silent all through the set. The Lady Panthers, behind Rochelle Rica, Jauquelene Joy Tada-Tada, Gelly Murpos, Dianne Padillo, Lelith Montebon, were scampering to extend the match to a fourth set.
The Lady Panthers saw a chance to extend the match to a fourth set, when they initiated a rally that put the game to five deadlocks, until both teams were at 20-all. SWU would not have any of it and finally broke out of it and was at match point, 24-20, behind a service ace of Therese Rae Ramas.
USPF was not about to give up but Paden hit the winning shot that doused all hopes for USPF.
SWU is the first women's collegiate team to secure the semifinals berth. The semis will start on Sept. 23. “USPF became very aggressive but our players just played their best to win the game,” said SWU head coach Jordan Paca.
Meanwhile, the Lady Panthers’ chances to get into the semifinals seems to be in limbo. It currently has a 1-2 record with just two matches left. USPF needs to win against Cebu Doctor's University (CDU) on Sept. 17 and against University of Cebu on Sept. 19 to be able to advance.
However, CDU is not about to make it easy for USPF as the team is looking solid so far.
Yesterday, it captured its second win over UC, 25-10, 25-13, 25-13 to improve to 2-1.
In the men’s division, the University of San Jose-Recoletos (USJ-R) and University of Southern Philippines Foundation (USPF) are already assured of slots to the semis as both have 4-0 win-loss records.