Tuesday, April 29, 2008 SWU finds solace in Nestea jinx
A TOP place finish in the Netea regional eliminations does not necessarily assure Cebu-based teams the national tile, even if they face mostly the same teams they previously defeated in the elimination. Curiously, it seems a Nestea regional title means a looming disaster in the national finals.
The Nestea Beach Volley tournament marked its 12th year this year. Hailed as this year’s national circuit champion, Southwestern University (SWU) only placed second at the Visayas elimination round with the University of the Visayas (UV) bagging the top spot.
In the National circuit however, the order was reversed with UV trailing the shadows of SWU.
“As silly as it may seem, sometimes, a superstition seems like a glimmer of hope for us,” said SWU head coach Janeth Ponte.
After placing second to UV in the regionals, SWU stalwarts Janelle Tabio and Florian Gutierrez said that losing the regional title does not matter.
“It doesn’t matter, we will win in the national finals,” said Gutierrez. “Visayas regional winners never win (the national title). But second placers almost always do.”
“Before, (Florian) played with Maritess (Natad) and they were only second place in the regionals, but went on to claim the national title,” Ponte said.
In last year’s tournament, a similar incident took place with the University of San Jose-Recoletos (USJ-R) topping the Visayas eliminations with UV as its runnerup.
In the nationals, USJ-R bombed out of the competition early and UV won the national title.
Still, yet another case of the jinx took place a couple of years back when UV topped the regional round but yet again lost during the national finals. (STC Mass Com Intern Strawberry Yap)
