SWU-Phinma, USJ-R bag CESAFI volleyball crown

CEBU, Philippines - Southwestern University-Phinma Lady Cobras and University of San Jose Recoletos Spiking Jaguars both consummated a two-game sweep of their respective rivals in a best-of-three finals series to claim the championships in the tertiary volleyball event of 2016 Cebu Schools Athletic Federation, Inc. yesterday at the University of San Carlos gym.

The Lady Cobras bagged their fourth straight title after finishing off the USJ-R Lady Jaguars, 26-24, 25-10, 18-25, 25-13.

The triumph was spearheaded by veteran Therese Ramas, Janelle Cabahug and Jessa Semblante. Ramas was hailed as the Most Valuable Player and best setter, while Janelle Cabahug named as best attacker and Jessa Semblante as best libero.

Lady Jaguar’s Daniella Alfeche and Linlyn Torado were awarded best blocker and best server.

SWU-Phinma coach Roy Ulan admitted that he didn’t felt threatened after USJ-R took the third set as he was confident with his wards because of the hard work they put in training.

 “I was confident because I saw how determined the girls are during practices. We practice every 5:30 in the morning and that shows how they are sincere on winning,” Ulan said.

The USJ-R Jaguars, on the other hand, finally broke their three-year title drought after finishing off the SWU men’s, 25-16, 23-25, 28-27, 25-21, in Game 2.

Jaguars’ skipper Kent Jay Verbosidad said that they were motivated to win the title after seeing their women’s squad falling in the hands of the Lady Cobras.

“We wanted to avenge their lost.  We can’t afford to give this one to them. We really aimed to end the series tonight,” he said.

The Cobras fought back as they took the second set, but the Jaguars responded through the efforts ofVerbosidad, Alastain Gairanod, RA Tecson and Dan Ivan Potot to surge back in the succeeding sets.

Dave Cabaron, Carl Alivio and John Edward Carascal fought hard to keep the Cobras alive but it was not enough to steal the game from the Jaguars.

 “This is really very overwhelming. There were people who said that we can’t do it, but we did it,” said Verbosidad who was named the MVP. (FREEMAN)