That was cry of the University of the Visayas duo Janez Armie Igot and Jusabelle Brillo after winning the second M. Lhuillier Kwarta Padala All-Ladies Beach Volley Open title last Saturday at the Wiggy’s Resort in Lilo-an.
UV lived up to its lofty billing after defeating University of San Jose-Recoletos’ Michelle Simbajon and Genie Sabas, 16-21, 21-12, 15-17 to defend the title. The game may have stretched to three sets, but the finals was not what the UV spikers were more concerned of but their semifinals against arch-nemesis Southwestern University.
UV trounced SWU’s Janelle Tabio and Florianne Gutierrez 25-15 in the crossover semifinals.
UV head coach Raffy Briones said that he wants to set the record straight that his wards still dominate the beach volleyball scene. The UV squad felt slighted by a newspaper article (not in Sun.Star Cebu) that said SWU players are the new beach volleyball queens following a win in Malapascua during the Holy Week.
Still the best
“My girls are still the best team as far as we are concerned. We could not count the Malapascua competition because we did not compete there,” Briones said.
Briones added that it would have been better if it said SWU is ready to face them and not claim to be the better players. “This was the reason why we performed our best in the semis against SWU because we want to prove them wrong,” Briones said.
SWU head coach Janeth Ponte, however, said that they never claimed to be better and were in fact humbled when her team lost to UV. “After winning in Malapascua it was said that we are now ready to face UV. I never claimed to be better than them,” Ponte said.
UV is the defending national champion of the Nestea Beach Volleyball competition. UV and SWU’s rivalry started last year. They came face to face in the finals of the MLSDF tilt and later that summer in the finals of the Nestea national championship in Boracay. All of these were won by UV.
The rivalry will once more be ignited in the Nestea Beach Volleyball competition Visayas elimination that is set to unwrap today in Bacolod City. Despite being the top-seeded teams, they will not earn automatic slots to the national finals in Boracay. (MCB)
