Boracay sizzles with beach volley

BORACAY – The country’s finest and fittest beach volley pairs will take center stage in this sun-blessed island paradise when the national leg of the 10th Nestea Beach Volley Championship gets going today.

A total of 24 teams, 12 each in the men’s and women’s divisions, will see action in the next three days, each one of them hoping to be crowned champion and rewarded the winner’s purse of P100,000.

Four teams each from Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao will comprise each division. They were culled from 72 teams that went through a tough elimination process last March at La Salle Greenhills.

St. Benilde, the reigning national champion in the men’s division, leads the Luzon qualifiers, which include Far Eastern University, Adamson and St. Francis. St. Benilde remains the team to beat this year.

Luzon qualifiers in the women’s side are St. Benilde, Letran, 2002 titlist Adamson and University of Baguio. From the Visayas, making it here in Boracay were 2001 champion Foundation University, 2002 and 2004 winner University of San Jose Recoletos, University of San Carlos and University of Negros Occ. Recoletos in the men’s side. Representing the Visayas in the women’s division are USJR, University of Visayas, University of San Agustin and University of Southern Philippines for the women’s. Southwestern U, the women’s champion over the last three years, failed to get past the elimination this time. From Mindanao, it will be Capitol University in Cagayan de Oro, Ateneo de Davao, University of Mindanao (Davao) and Mindanao State U in the men’s division, and MSU, UMD, University of Mindanao (Tagum) and Holy Cross of Davao College in the women’s side.

The tournament is sponsored by Speedo, MTV, Power Shot, Hey Jude, Mikasa, Cebu Pacific, Seventeen, D-Mall, Villa de Oro, Club Ten, Schering-Plough Coppertone, Crystal Sand Resort, ClicktheCity.com, Boracay Gold Crowne Club, Bantay Kalikasan ABS-CBN Foundation, Nautilus by PJ Aranador and La Salle Greenhills.

Each division will be divided into four groups of three teams representing the different regions. After a single round-robin, the top four teams will advance to the quarterfinals.

Teams ranked fifth to 12th will then dispute the last four slots in the quarters. The eight teams (1 vs 8, 2 vs 7, 3 vs 6 and 4 vs 5) will dispute the four slots to the cross-over semis.

From a single-set race-to-25, action in the semis and finals will be stretched to a best-of-three. If needed, the third set will be a race-to-15. the finals is set Saturday.