Saturday, December 22, 2007 It’s Mandaue v. Lapu in Guv Cup By Marian C. Baring Sun.Star Staff Reporter
MANDAUE City struggled early before finding its groove yesterday to book a finals slot today in the cash-rich city cluster of the third Governor Gwen Garcia Unity Volleyball Cup for women.
Mandaue won three sets to two against Toledo City in the Mandaue City Sports Complex. It will face Lapu-Lapu City, which trashed defending champion Talisay City in a four-set victory that stretched late into last night.
The champion will go home with P100,000 as prize.
Toledo struck first yesterday and took the first game by storm, grabbing the momentum after winning the first two sets.
The M. Lhuillier Sports Development Foundation-backed Mandaue looked headed to a loss until its teenage star, Danika Gendraule, found her groove lead a late rally and win the match 21-25, 19-25, 31-29, 25-6, 15-5. The game took an hour and 55 minutes to finish.
Stepping up
After winning the first two sets, the Toledo squad of coach Jerome Capada needed just one more set to seal their trip to the next round. But Gendraule, the high school stalwart of University of Southern Philippines Foundation, stepped up to salvage a Mandaue win.
In the third set, Toledo was up front, 15-12, when Gendraule and Janez Armie Igot, of University of the Visayas, initiated 5-2 rally to tie the game at 17-all.
This was followed by eight deadlocks, until 29-all, before Mandaue scored the next two points to win the set. This stretch was spiked by four straight points scored by Gendraule.
Winning a set put life back into an otherwise wavering Mandaue squad and they started the fourth set with renewed spirits and raced to an 8-1 lead, behind the sister act of Danika and older sibling Yola.
Catmon v. Liloan
Toledo players, having drained their strength in the first two sets, lost steam and managed only to salvage six points in this period, 25-6. Most of the points were scored from unforced errors by Mandaue.
The final set was no different as Toledo could not seem to get its act together to save their game.
Mandaue was the first team in the city cluster to move to the final round. It will face Lapu-Lapu in today’s final at the Cebu International Convention Center.
In the provincial cluster, Catmon sailed to the final round after an easy 25-19, 25-17, 25-11 win over Santa Fe. Catmon was paced by Methosheena Bate, Catherine Marquez, and Athena Sucalit, the girls who won a gold medal in the provincial meet two years ago.
Catmon will be facing Liloan in the provincial cluster finals. Liloan, which was led by Susana Yuson, defeated Minglanilla, 25-‘5, 25-‘6, 23-25, 25-9.
The winner in the provincial division will also receive P100,000. The runners up in both division will get P50,000 each.
The cheer dance competition winner will get P20,000, while its runner up will pocket P10,000.
Today’s final will be a first for Cebu as it is the first time taraflex mats were laid out in an amateur and local competition. Taraflex is the playing surface for international competitions.
