THE finest players in the beach volleyball scene will be in town for the Beach Volleyball Republic (BVR) Tour at Beach Placid Resort in Sta. Fe, Bantayan Island, Cebu this weekend.
The BVR Tour Cebu will feature 24 teams – 12 each in the men’s and women’s divisions – coming from Palawan, Manila, Cebu, Davao, Iloilo City, Singapore, Hong Kong and Malaysia.
One of the teams to watch out for is the BVR Tour Leg 2 men’s champion Ato Ni Bai with duo Calvin Sarte and Cebuano spiker Jade Becaldo, who was named the Most Valuable Player for the second leg in Puerto Galera the other weekend.
The University of Visayas (UV) will field the duo of Kevin Juban and Raphy Abanto, while their Cebu Schools Athletic Foundation Inc. (Cesafi) victims University of San Jose-Recoletos (USJ-R) will have the services of Alastair Gairanud and Kent Verbosidad.
The town of Santa Fe will also field two teams; the tandem of Michael Ilustrisimo and Remmie Jun Echavez will compose Santa Fe 1, while Reniel Illut and Jewel Cabahug will play for Santa Fe 2.
The other teams with Cebuano roots are the National University (NU) with Pol Salvador and James Buytrago; University of Perpetual Help’s Joebert Almodiel and Rey Taneo; and Asian Volleyballista’s Ranchel and Royet Varga.
Completing the men’s team roster are Airforce (Jessie Lopez and Ranran Abdilla), USLS (Deannede de Pedro and Herold Parcia), Bacolod (Simon Aguillon and Roellene Inaudito) and Malaysia.
The women’s division, on the other hand, will have Cebu’s Paula Maninang and Lyn Torada for USJ-R; and Floremel Rodriguez and Therese Maeramas for Team Cebu.
The other teams are Perlas 1 and 2, Chikkas, Airforce, Phiilippine National Police, Saint Vincent’s College, SJI-Bacolod, UNO-R1 and UNO-R2 and Bacolod.
The champions in the men’s and women’s divisions will win P40,000; P20,000 will go to the second placers, and P10,000 for third placers.
This is the second straight year that the BVR Tour held the event in Cebu following the Moalboal Leg in June last year.
There will be two volleyball tournaments in Bantayan this weekend as the 1st Governor’s Cup will hold games at the Okoy Gym in Sta.Fe town.
The games will be Tuburan against Medellin, Bogo City versus Sta. Fe on Saturday followed with the games of Bogo City and Medellin, and Tuburan and Tabogon on Sunday. (RSC)