Superhot SWU belles in hot start

BORACAY–Southwestern University, the reigning women’s champion, played as hot as the summer weather yesterday and then earned one of the top four rankings heading into the semifinals of the Nestea Beach Volley 2004 here.

Under the melting sun and before a cheering crowd, the Southwestern pair of Florian Gutierrez and Marites Natad made their presence felt, sweeping its two matches for the day that also had 2002 champion Adamson living up to expectations.

The Southwestern spikers got the ball rolling with a lopsided 21-10 victory over dangerous University of Baguio in a high noon encounter then returned a couple of hours later to edge University of Mindanao Tagum in an exciting match, 21-15.

Also taking a big step in the women’s division of the event giving away P100,000 to the men’s and women’s champions were Adamson, University of Negros Occidental Recoletos and Letran. Like Southwestern, they went 2-0 but Adamson took the top spot due to a higher quotient.

The eight other teams in the women’s side will plunge back into action this morning (5 vs 12, 6 vs 11, 7 vs 10 and 8 vs 9) with the winners taking on the four ranked teams in the afternoon. The top four will play in the semis Sunday morning and the finals set in the afternoon.

The best-of-three format of 21 points per set will be used in the semis and finals. A deciding third set, however, will be down to 15 points. Sponsoring the sizzling summer event are Mikasa, Speedo, Coppertone, Smart, Cebu Pacific, Ayala Center, TGI Friday’s, Power Plant Mall and Le Soleil de Boracay, the official media residence.

"I’m quite impressed with my new partner despite the fact that we’ve only been together in beach volleyball for a year. But I think it was really tougher last year and that there are a lot of teams this year with new partnerships," said Gutierrez who was part of the winning tandem last year.

Adamson, a serious threat to Southwestern’s title-retention campaign, defeated Ateneo de Davao (21-13) and San Agustin (21-10). UNO-R downed St. Benilde (21-10) and Holy Cross Davao College (22-20) while Letran scored against Mindanao State U (21-13) and University of the Visayas (21-17).

In the men’s division which had games going on as of presstime, inching closer to the top four rankings with their 1-0 records were La Salle, Iloilo Doctors College, University of the Philippines, 2002 champion University of San Jose Recoletos and Foundation U. .