St. Benilde spanks La Salle in Nestea VB

Not even the presence of La Salle’s most intimidating player could stop St. Benilde from claiming a slot to the Boracay phase of the ninth Nestea Beach Volley tournament.

Maureen Penetrante, the tall shot-block artist of La Salle, was at the losing end yesterday as St. Benilde scored a 22-20 come-from-behind win at the La Salle Greenhills sand-court.

Faith Ann de Guzman and Janilyn Sarabia gave Penetrante and her teammate Sheryl Magallanes a dose of their own medicine to reach the May 5 to 7 Boracay stage.

The three other women teams that will represent Luzon in Boracay are reigning NCAA champion Philippine Christian U, Far Eastern U and University of Baguio.

PCU, the reigning NCAA champion and the No.1 team after the two-day elimination round, dumped No.8 Letran, 21-17; No.2 FEU defeated No.7 Adamson, 21-14; and No.5 UB ousted No.4 Ateneo, 21-19.

With their victories, these four teams earned hot tickets to Boracay and a chance to win the top prize of P100,000 in cash and P50,000 in sports equipment for the schools they represent.

"Parehong masarap na tinalo namin ang La Salle at makakapunta kami sa Boracay," said Sarabia after the match where No.3 St. Benilde trailed No.6 La Salle early on, 6-12. St. Benilde tied the match at 19 and won two straight points after a 20-20 standoff.

Penetrante is one of the country’s finest indoor players, helping La Salle win this year’s V-League crown and at the same time earning the Best Shot Blocker award. She also led La Salle past St. Benilde in the finals of another beach volley tournament earlier this year.

The men’s quarterfinal round was being played as of presstime yesterday with eight of the 16 entries seeing action.

Being pitted against each other were No.1 St. Benilde vs No.8 Lyceum, No.2 Adamson vs No.7 La Salle, No.3 FEU vs No.6 UP Los Baños and No.4 PATTS Aeronautical School vs No.5 St. Francis of Assisi.

The reigning champion in the men’s division is San Jose Recoletos while the women’s reigning titlist is Southwestern University — both from the Visayas.

The tournament takes a break today and resumes tomorrow with the Visayas elims. A dozen teams each from the men’s and women’s divisions will see action for two days with the top four also advancing to Boracay.

The Mindanao elims will be staged Wednesday also at La Salle Greenhills. Since there are only eight teams from each group, the top four after the elims will make it outright to the semis and finals in Boracay.

This year’s sponsors are Speedo, Mikasa, Cebu Pacific, Hey Jude Resorts, La Salle Greenhills, Villa de Oro, Coppertone, Boracay Regency, Power Plant Mall, National Sports Grill and Click the City.com.