15th Nestea Beach Volley national finals blasts off

CEBU, Philippines - The best beach volleyball players of the country are now gathered in Boracay Island for the 15th Nestea Beach Volley National Finals at the Crystal Sand Resort.

The Cebu bets are hoping to put the Queen City of the South back in the spotlight.

The duo of Danika Yolanda Gedrauli and Lorie May Layno of Southwestern University (SWU) is the only Cebu squad, which qualified in the women’s division.

In the men’s division — Jade Becaldo and Mike Abria of the University of the Visayas (UV) and Jason Uy and Jade Illut of the University of San Jose-Recoletos (USJ-R) are carrying Cebu’s banner.

SWU’s main strategist Jason Gabales has high hopes for the Gendrauli and Layno tandem.

On the other hand, coach Raffy Briones of UV, has been facilitating the training of Becaldo and Abria, and also saw a great potential for the partnership to excel in the national finals with Becaldo having the experience already.

Although USJ-R has a rookie tandem, they hope to shine under the mentorship of Cebu Sports Hall of Famer and former national beach volleyball standout Grace Antigua, who is their coach.

“We’re training hard in order to improve knowing that we are neophytes in this competition. We only have a short break during the Holy Week and then we resumed our practice in both indoor and beach volley at the same time,” said Uy.

The other Visayas title contenders are defending national champions and Visayas leg beach volley queens Jovelyn Gonzaga and Fiola Mae Ceballos of Central Philippines University (CPU) and University of St. La Salle (USLS)-Bacolod’s Sheryl June Denila and Patty Jane Orendain and the tandem of Roelene Inaudito and Kerwin Reje, who also topped the men’s division.

Aside from trophies, medals and the champion teams’ one year bragging rights as the Kings and Queens of Collegiate Beach Volleyball in the Philippines, substantial cash prizes will also be given to the top four finishers in the nationals.

The champion in each division will receive P100,000, the second placer will get P65,000 while the third and fourth placers will have P35,000 and P22,500, respectively. — (FREEMAN)