Spain cuts Pinay pair to size

MANILA, Philippines - Starring 6-foot-2 Amaranta Fernandez, top-seeded Spain made short work of Philippines Team A yesterday, 21-14, 21-10, and booted the host team out of the Spike for Peace International beach volley tournament at the Philsports Arena.

The match lasted only 29 minutes as Fernandez perfectly teamed up with Ester Ribera and assured Spain of a seat in the quarterfinals of the 11-nation event.

Alexa Micek and Charo Soriano, a pair of Pinay beauties, couldn’t hold their ground on home soil and fell into a maze of errors, 19 of them compared to the 10 of Spain.

Soriano served wide to hand the Spanish players the victory in the event organized by the Philippine Sports Commission and offering a juicy top prize of $8,000 (roughly P368,000).

From the stands, it looked so easy for Spain. But Fernandez, who has 15 kills and four service winners, insisted that it was not.

“No. It wasn’t easy. In that game we had to stay focused. We knew the Philippines could play well so we had to push until the final point,” she said.

Filipino coach Oliver Almadro said size made the difference.

“Malaki talaga. And Spain is the top seed. We are not yet in their level,” he said after Phl Team A bowed out with three straight defeats, counting their losses to Thailand and New Zealand.

Danika Gendrauli and Norie Diaz of Phl Team B also kissed their hopes goodbye after losing to Sweden and Japan in their opening matches, and then against Brazil, 21-15, 21-11.

In other matches yesterday, Thailand stunned New Zealand, 21-15, 21-15 and Indonesia rallied past the United States, 21-16, 17-21, 15-13.

Spain won the first point of the match on a kill by Fernandez, and after allowing the Filipinas to tie the game at 2-2, the visitors went to work and raced to a 10-5 lead.

Not even the cheers from a small group of Pinoy youngsters could carry Micek and Soriano back into the set as they trailed, 16-9 and 20-13. Fernandez wrapped it up with another kill.

Matches in the contenders’ bracket were going on until presstime last night, heading to today’s quarterfinals. The semis and finals will be played Thursday.