Sunday, March 25, 2007 Cebu bets eye slots in national beach volley
A POWERHOUSE cast will carry Cebu’s colors in the Visayas elimination of the Nestea Beach Volley 2007 next week at the La Salle Greenhills.
The high regard for the Cebu teams comes because the Cebu schools in the competition have either won the national title or are finalists in the country’s premier beach volleyball event in the past years.
Among the Visayas representatives, only Cebu has multiple entries, while the others only have token representation.
Coach Raffy Briones’ University of the Visayas, manned by Janez Armie Ygot and Jusabelle Brillo, were runners-up in 2004 against fellow Cebuanos from Southwestern University. They are back this year, all primed for that elusive national crown.
Ygot and Brillo, whom Briones said are stronger compared to three years ago, recently won the M. Lhuillier Sports Development Foundation (MLSDF) beach volley competition against SWU’s Janelle Tabio and Maritess Natad.
Free trip
Because of their impressive performance, the MLSDF will be backing the duo’s trip to Manila for the Visayas elimination which starts this Tuesday.
“The beach volley tournament initiated by M. Lhuillier a few weeks ago is already a big help for us. It gave our players the needed exposure and toughened up their preparation for the Nestea event. This time, MLSDF is supporting our Manila trip.
This will surely encourage our players to strive even harder to gain a slot to Boracay,” said Briones.
SWU, the only team to ever win three national titles, has a beefed up line-up in Natad and Tabio.
Natad is responsible for two of the three titles for SWU. Tabio, on the other hand, was also a national title holder while she was playing for her team in Dumaguete.
Meanwhile, the University of San Jose-Recoletos (USJ-R) of Grace Antigua will be the lone Cebu school to field a team in the men’s division.
Antigua steered the USJ-R men’s team to victory in 2002 and 2004. This year, the men’s team will be made up of Ariel Carumba and Oniel Sanchez.
Representing the USJ-R women’s team is last year’s runner-up, Julette Marikit, with new partner Genie Sabas, who is a former RP Youth team member. Marikit and her old partner, Michelle Matuguina, lost to St. Benilde in last year’s finals. (MCB)
