CEBU Schools Athletic Foundation Inc. (Cesfi) women’s volleyball champion Southwestern University (SWU) will be embarking on its first attempt against Manila’s best teams in the Shakey’s V-League this summer.
SWU got invited for the seventh season that will start this April 11 at The Arena in San Juan. SWU will be joined by the University of San Jose Recoletos (USJ-R) and Bacolod City’s University of St. La Salle as the guest teams of the tournament.
USJ-R got an automatic quarterfinal spot in previous V-Leagues but this time, it will have to go through the elimination round.
SWU will be taking the spot vacated by the University of the Philippines, which decided to skip this year’s event.
Exciting
“What makes this conference exciting is that the Visayan teams will see action from the start, unlike the previous years when they are seeded into the quarters. This will give all the teams the chance to test their mettle,” said Moying Martelino, chairman of the organizing Sports Vision Management Group Inc. (SVMGI) in a statement.
“This is going to be fun and exciting as we envisioned it to be.”
The defending champion, University of Santo Tomas, which posted the league’s best record of five championships, will again be in the hunt this year.
Hot on UST’s heels are Ateneo, Adamson, Far Eastern U, perennial NCAA champion San Sebastian and Lyceum and St. Benilde.
Under the tournament’s format, the 10 teams will be divided into two groups and will play a single-round robin elimination.
The top four squads from each group will advance to the quarterfinals, where they will split into groups of two.
Each group will again play a single round robin and the top two will advance to the crossover semifinals.