Rondina, Pons opt for beach volleyball in SEAG

MANILA, Philippines – Sisi Rondina and Bernadeth Pons had bigger plans when they decided to skip the tryouts for the national women’s volleyball team two weeks ago.

Larong Volleyball sa Pilipinas, Inc. (LVPI) president Peter Cayco said Rondina and Pons showed interest to represent the country in beach volley competition, prompting them to forego the tryouts for the national women’s team in indoor play.

Rondina and Pons came from different universities, but they are billed as the top beach volleyball players in the country today.

Their brightest moment came in 2017 when they won the Philippine Superliga Challenge Cup beach volleyball tournament title over the pair of Fiola Ceballos and Patty Orendain.

Then, they represented the country in the Southeast Asian Beach Volleyball Championship in Singapore before successfully defending their title in the PSL with a demolition of Jackie Estoquia and Dhannylaine Demontano.

Cayco said their slots are not yet cast in stone, but they are willing to go through the tryouts for another shot at donning the national colors.

“They told me that they will skip the tryouts for indoor because they want to compete in the beach,” said Cayco, the amiable federation president.

“As much as possible, we don’t want our beach volleyball players to compete in indoor. We want separate teams. So when they told me that they want to compete in beach volleyball, we gladly gave them the go-signal.”

Cayco said although Rondina and Pons already signified intention to join the tryouts, they have yet to formally assemble the composition of the coaching staff.

LVPI selections committee chairman Ginio Panganiban is tipped to name the head coach within the week.

“Once the coaching staff has been chosen, then we will set the tryouts,” said Cayco, adding that they will field two teams in both the men’s and women’s divisions of the 30th Southeast Asian Games in Subic.

“We’ll make an announcement about the head coach maybe late this week or early next week.”