Hot chase for 3 Cebu teams

By Mike T. Limpag

BORACAY - Three Cebu teams are still on the hunt for the P100,000 top prize as they made the semifinal round of the Nestea Fit Beach Volleyball national finals.

The University of the Visayas (UV) and the University of San Jose-Recoletos (USJ-R), who share a room, will be going for each other’s throats in the men’s division, while the University of Southern Philippines (USP) will be up against a familiar foe in the women’s division.

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UV and USJ-R made it to the final four and will be facing each other for the second time. UV won the first encounter in three sets.

Yesterday, UV’s Jade Becaldo and Precioso Bendijo Jr. only needed to win one match to book their seat, while USJ-R’s Ariel Carumba and Loujie Tipgos had to overcome two teams to advance.

Other semis

The other semifinal will be between defending champion Foundation University and Mindanao State University-Tawi-Tawi.

Becaldo and Bendijo started their roll with a 21-18, 21-19 win over Far Eastern University (FEU) in the first game, keeping alive a four-set streak since losing the first set to USJ-R yesterday.

After losing to UV, Carumba and Tipgos picked up two straight wins. First to fall was Mahardika Institute of Technology, 21-13, 21-14, setting up a match against FEU.

FEU earlier defeated Holy Cross of Davao College, 21-9, 21-18, to stay alive.

However, the champion from Luzon was no match for the second Cebuano team it faced yesterday, and lost, 21-17, 21-16.

“We are a little bit challenged because we have one loss and if you haven’t lost, you tend to get complacent,” said Carumba
After a 10-10 standoff, USJ-R called for time and the short talk worked as they took the lead, 18-13.

“We were still reading their game then,” said Tipgos.

After drawing close to 20-16, Tipgos ended the first set with a spike.

Open spot

The second set was only competitive in the early part as Tipgos routinely won the battle at the net and kept finding the open spot, while Carumba’s diving digs foiled FEU’s potential winners.

After a 4-4 tie, USJ-R took the lead, 10-6 and FEU never got closer than three points as the Cebuano ended the set in 14 minutes to set up a rematch with UV.

“They have to communicate well tomorrow (today) because that’s very important,” said USJ-R coach Grace Antigua, who is hoping to end her three-year title drought in the Nestea national finals.

In the women’s side, USPF lost to University of Negros Oriental-Recoletos (UNO-R), 14-21, 21-18, 15-8, but came back strong in the afternoon match with a clinical two-set win over the University of the Cordilleras.

Erika Verano, who injured her ankle in the morning game, showed no signs of slowing down as she and Apple Saraum won, 21-13, 21-14, in just 27 minutes.

The two will next face Visayas champion UNO-R in the semis, while Adamson University faces the University of San Agustin in the other semifinal.