Air Force battles navy in Petron Beach volley finals

SUBIC — Philippine Air Force‚s Rubie de Leon and Theresa May dela Rosa earned the right to face tournament favorite Michelle Laborte and Cecille Tabuena of the Philippine Navy in the finals of the 2004 Petron Ladies‚ Beach Volleyball Tournament‚s 3rd leg at the sand-courts near the Boardwalk here yesterday.

As the No. 2 team after the elimination round of the two-day tournament, the Air Force tandem had to win its semifinal assignment twice, but still pulled through with flying colors.

They obliterated the pair of Michelle Pinero and Joan Namuco, 21-12, before repeating the trick an hour later 21-14 against the same team to enter the championship of this beach volleyball festival backed by Petron.

"We‚re just happy to be in the finals," said De Leon. "The veteran duo of Laborte and Tabuena will be tough to beat, but we‚ve made it this far. We‚ll just try our best and hopefully, we can play a near-flawless game to stand a chance against them."

Tabuena and Laborte, the beach volleyball champions of the National Open in Baguio City last May, reached the final round after turning back the St. Francis of Assisi College pair of Joyce Realeza and Roma Cyril Jaro, 21-14.

The two-day volley fiesta also sponsored by Universal Motors Corp., Isuzu Phils. Corp. and VIA Events and Sports, will gather the past champions of the tournament in a grand championship in December at a still unnamed venue.

Tisha Abundo, the former commissioner of the Philippine Sports Commission and now tournament organizer, said that the winner of the volley extravaganza receives P10,000 with the runner-up getting P5,000.

Complaceny, however, nearly took the better end of Laborte and Tabuena, allowing their much-smaller foes to fight back in the early goings of their semifinal encounter.

After building a 12-7 lead on a service winner by Tabuena, the Navy spikers allowed the Lady Doves to close in at 11-12 on an amazing save by the pretty Realeza.

But the Navy team, who will enter the championship round sporting an immaculate 5-0 record, quickly patched up its act together and racked up four straight points, three via the booming spikes of Laporte, to pull away for good at 16-11.