San Beda duo rules women’s beach volley

MANILA, Philippines — Not even two early losses due to forfeiture and pair of gritty challengers could stop San Beda’s wonder twins Ella and Nieza Viray from claiming their second straight NCAA women’s beach volleyball championship.

Down with two early losses after being slapped with forfeiture due to wrong uniform, the Virays swept their last seven games and then smashed Dana Persa and Deana Estanislao of Perpetual Help, 21-11, 21-16, in the finals to capture their second title in a row.

“We didn’t let it affect us and we overcame it, that’s the most important thing,” said Nieza, who has teamed up with Ella in the sand courts of Lingayen, Pangasinan since they were kids, in Filipino.

The Virays, who are both Physcial Education Major in Sports students, will try to cap their NCAA career by shooting for nothing less than a three-peat next year.

“We want to graduate with another championship next year,” said Ella.

In the men’s section, Emilio Aguinaldo’s Joshua Pitogo and Joshua Mina edged Perpetual Help’s Gilbert Balmores and Jay Jay Solamillo, 21-19, 17-21, 15-13, to also grab a back-to-back.

It was the second title for Mina, who was the other half of last year’s victorious squad, while Pitogo, a rookie who took over from Paoli Lim, is cherishing his very first crown.

Earlier, Noel Michael Kampton and Hero Austria of Perpetual Help took the juniors’ crown by outlasting Letran, 19-21, 21-12, 15-7.

It was a strong performance for the Las Piñas-based school yet again after all its junior, men and women’s team made it to the finals before going home with a championship and a couple of runner-up finishes.