UST No.1 seed in women's beach volleyball

MANILA, Philippines - University of Santo Tomas earned the No. 1 seed in the women’s Final Four while defending champion Far Eastern University completed a seven-game eliminations sweep in the men’s contest to automatically advance to the finals in UAAP Season 74 beach volleyball action on Sunday at the University of the East-Calocan sand courts.

Maru Banaticla and Judy Caballejo made sure UST emerges top seed by beating Shedd dela Peña and Loryvel Faytaren of FEU, 21-11, 21-19.

The win was UST’s sixth in seven games, the same record as Ateneo’s, but the Tigresses got the No. 1 ranking by virtue of their win-over-the-other straight sets victory over the Lady Eagles earlier in the eliminations.

Alyssa Valdez and Bea Tan closed out Ateneo’s eliminations campaign with a 21-11, 21-14 victory over UE’s Jimberly Dawn Dizon and Jessica Paron.

Adamson University stayed in the hunt for a second consecutive women’s crown after Pau Soriano and Sheila Pineda beat De La Salle’s Michelle Gumabao and Camille Cruz, 21-11, 21-15.

The victory, the fifth in seven games, put the Lady Falcons in third place overall. They will face No. 2 Lady Eagles in the crossover semifinals on Saturday.

De La Salle, FEU and UE finished with similar 3-4 records, but the Lady Archers clinched the fourth and last semifinals berth after the quotient system for breaking ties was applied.

University of the Philippines’ Aia del Mundo and Pau Genido beat Mary Grace Diesta and Lucille Bayron of National University, 21-18, 21-17, in the other eliminations game on Sunday. UP finished the season with 2-5 and NU 0-7.

FEU reached the finals outright after Karl dela Calzada and Arvin Avila defeated UST’s Jayson Ramos and Mark Gil Alfafara, 22-20, 19-21, 15-12.

Adamson University bagged the No. 2 seed with a 6-1 record in the stepladder phase to determine FEU’s finals opponent behind John Hendrix Competente and Gilbert Longavela’s 21-14, 21-16 victory over UP’s Mico Lucindo at Mark Sagad, 21-14, 21-16, Sunday.

UST ranked third in the semifinals with a 5-2 card, while UP, with a 3-4 record, bagged the No. 4 seed.