CEBU, Philippines - Defending champion University of San Jose-Recoletos (USJ-R) and elimination round topnotcher University of Southern Philippines Foundation (USP-F) waded through rough waters before repulsing their respective rivals in a five-set thriller to advance into the men’s division finals of the Cebu Schools Athletic Foundation, Inc. (CESAFI) volleyball tournament yesterday at the Aznar Coliseum.
USJ-R of legendary coach Grace Antigua started hot in the first set, 25-16, but the University of San Carlos (USC) of coach Norvie Labuga surprised the Spiking Jaguars by taking the next two sets with uniform scores of 25-23 to take a 2-1 edge behind the stellar showing of Harvey Bernil, Dennis Sepulveda, Bonvie Estrera, Alvin Bacaling and Ryan Mark Abut.
With their backs pinned against wall, Leoniel Sanchez, Ken Bhoyd Abunda, Jesriel Pino and Kevin Casia came to the rescue and powered USJ-R to a 25-20 victory in the fourth set to forge a rubbermatch.
Flashing the heart of a champion, USJ-R went into finish off the fagged out Carolinians, 15-9, to keep their grandslam bid in motion.
It was exactly the same scenario in the other men’s duel as USPF survived a scary five-set battle against the equally-tough University of the Visayas (UV).
USPF raced to a 25-19 victory in the opening canto, but the UV swept the next two frames, 25-20, 25-21.
USPF stayed alive with a lopsided 25-13 triumph in the fourth, thus, the deciding match.
In the decider, the two protagonists went to an air-tight duel resulting into 10 deadlocks, the last was at 12-all as USPF made three consecutive kills to silence UV.
In the women’s division, reigning titlist Southwestern University (SWU) advanced with relative ease, whipping USJ-R in straight sets, 25-22, 25-14, 25-21 to arrange a championship date with USPF, which booked the other final ticket after incredibly bouncing back from two sets down to terminate the USC belles, 23-25, 19-25, 25-14, 25-21, 15-8. (FREEMAN)