It’s V-ball time!

CEBU, Philippines — Terrific traffic will be a major obstacle to hurdle but there’s no stopping the opening of the 2018 Governor’s Cup U-18 Cebu Province Women’s Volleyball Tournament.  Teams from different municipalities will converge at the Mandaue City Sports and Cultural Complex for the formal opening this coming Sunday, February 18.

The 29 teams are divided into the South and North divisions with each division having three brackets.  They will be battling for a share of the nearly P800,000 total cash prizes budgeted by the provincial government.  Local volleyball had been in hibernation for a while and this tournament is a welcome development especially for the younger ones.

I will be assuming that the usual favorites will come from the cities of Mandaue, Lapu-Lapu, Talisay, Carcar, Bogo and Danao and from the municipalities of Minglanilla, Argao, Dalaguete, Boljoon and Oslob from the south and the municipalities of Consolacion, Liloan, Compostela, Sogod and Catmon up north.

As I understand, it follows the same format as the defunct GUV Cup which affords teams to play home and away games.  Each bracket will do a round-robin series with the top two teams for each bracket doing another elimination round for division honors.   The top two teams from the North and South divisions will then battle for supremacy and the P300,000 championship purse.

The previous tournaments of years back showcased the abilities of active and ex varsity players, local talents and a sprinkling of youngsters.  Because they had less experience compared to their senior counterparts, most of the younger players saw minimal minutes on the playing court.  But a few excelled and caught the eyes and approval of scouts.

Probably the best product to come out of past tournaments was the power hitting young lady from Catmon, Gretchel Soltones.  She was a GUV Cup standout and was recruited to play for San Sebastian College.   She became a 3-time NCAA MVP during Season 90, 91 and 92 and was a member of the 2015 U-23 women’s national team to the Asian Women’s Volleyball Championship held at Pasig and the 2015 SEA Games at Singapore.

Graduating from college, Soltones became a fixture in the semi-pro circuit and was the MVP of the Shakey’s V-League Season 13 Open Conference.   Her current team is PLDT.

Another young lady from Catmon plays in the UAAP and was a member of the 2014 U-17 national team to the Asian Youth Girls Volleyball Championship.  Isa Molde is on her third year with UP Fighting Maroons and was Season 78 Rookie of the Year.  Justine Dorog is another Cebuana wearing UP’s colors.

From Compostela National High School to the University of Sto. Tomas is the story of the high jumping Cherry Rondina.  She stands somewhere between 5-5 and 5-6 but oh how she flies with those thunderous spikes.  She was discovered by scouts while playing for CVIRAA in several editions of the Palarong Pambansa. In her rookie year, she was the MVP when UST won the UAAP Season 77 beach volleyball title.  She also was the Season 79 and 80 Beach V-Ball MVP while at the same time playing on the six-a-side team.  She plays with the powerhouse Petron Blaze Spikers in the PSL.  With Rondina at UST is Rica Jane Rivera from USJ-R.

Other Cebuanas playing in the UAAP are Adamson’s Mary Joy Dacoron (Oslob NHS) and Mary Jane Igao (USC), Ateneo’s Deanna Wong (USJ-R) and FEU’s Marianne Calinawan (SWU).

This year’s revival of the province-wide volleyball tournament will inspire these young girls to follow the trails blazed by the above-named players and I’m very sure that there will be a good number of exceptional discoveries.

I don’t know why it took several years to bring volleyball back to the masses.  Probably because mid-term elections are nearing that it is high time for Capitol inhabitants to go around the province?  It was a long time coming but at least for a start, we’re now having a volleyball governor’s cup, not a governor’s cough.