Petron bucks first set woes, beats Generika-Ayala A

MANILA, Philippines – Petron XCS struggled early on, but recovered just in time to capture a 19-21, 21-14, 15-8 victory over Generika-Ayala A in the opener of the Philippine Superliga Beach Volleyball Challenge Cup Wednesday at the Sands By the Bay in Mall of Asia.

Sisi Rondina and Bernadeth Pons had some trouble moving on the sand in the first set before crawling back in the second and third to dominate Fiola Ceballos and Patty Orendain, the same pair that they crushed in the thrilling finals showdown last year.

With the victory, Petron scored an early lead in Pool A and captured the momentum heading into an important battle against Cocolife A of Danika Gendrauli and Nerissa Bautista in this prestigious summer spectacle bankrolled by PLDT, Sunsilk, Isuzu, Senoh, Mikasa, Maynilad, Petron, SM Malls, Generika Drugstore and UCPB Gen.

The Blaze Spikers and the Asset Managers are still playing as of posting time.

Rondina said their lack of training and familiarity with the venue doomed their chances in the opening set.

“We haven’t trained in this venue so we had some troubles moving on the sand,” said Rondina, who saw had to wrap up her UAAP and FIVB World Tour stints before she could formally buckle down to training with Pons.

Pons, who steered Far Eastern University to a best-of-three finals showdown with mighty De La Salle University, agreed.

“Whenever I jump, it seems that the sand was pulling back my feet. We had difficulty moving in the first set. Fortunately, we managed to adjust and win the second and third sets.”

Also emerging victorious was Cignal A, which recovered from a sluggish second set en route to a 21-19, 5-21, 16-14.

The pair of Mylene Paat and Rap Aguilar pounced on the Bang Pineda and Sheeka Espinosa’s blunders at the service box down the stretch to eke out the win and an early lead in Pool B.

In the men’s play, Sands overcame UST A, 21-15, 21-17, and Foton, 21-19, 21-15.

Foton, however stormed back and clobbered Cocolife, 21-5, 21-7, to improve to 1-1 in Pool A.

In Pool B, Cignal overcame TVM, 16-21, 21-14, 15-9; Smart denied Navy, 21-19, 14-21, 15-10l; and TVM dominated Navy, 21-17, 21-18.