By Jean Malanum
MANILA – Alas Pilipinas pair Sisi Rondina and Bernadeth Pons ended their run in the Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour Futures Nuvali after bowing to Beata Vaida and Francesca Ioana Alupei of Romania, 21-18, 19-21, 12-15, in Santa Rosa City, Laguna on Saturday.
Playing in their first beach volleyball tournament after focusing on indoor competition for the past two years, they fought hard but failed to overcome their rivals.
“I’m proud of our performance here. The preparation was really short, but we worked hard for this. Unfortunately, we fell short,” Pons said.
“We have a lot to work on, I was looking to get that one kill block because that would have been huge in a close match like this. But this is still a good start and we’ll do better in the next events,” she added.
Rondina, 28, vowed to fight for medals in future tournaments, with the Thailand Southeast Asian Games in December as the main goal.
“I’m very grateful for the opportunity and we deeply appreciate the warm reception. So amazing! It just feels so bad that it ended early,” she said.
Khylem Progella and Sofia Pagara also lost their quarterfinal match to Asian Volleyball Confederation Beach Tour Nuvali Open silver medalists Shaunna Polley and Olivia MacDonald of New Zealand, 17-21, 14-21.
The University of Santo Tomas duo had beaten Danieke Prins and Annemieke Driessen of the Netherlands, 23-25, 21-11, 15-10, and 2023 Australia Beach Volleyball Tour champions Vanuatu’s Sherysyn Toko and Majabelle Lawac of Vanuatu, 21-16, 21-17.
Filipinos James Buytrago and Rancel Varga, silver medalists last year, fell to Eylon Elazar and Kevin Cuzmiciov of Israel in the quarterfinals, 21-17, 21-15, of the men’s division of the tournament organized by the Philippine National Volleyball Federation (PNVF) and supported by the Philippine Olympic Committee and Philippine Sports Commission.
Buytrago and Varga earlier won over Australia’s Finley Bennett and Jed Walker (21-17, 21-16) and Hungary’s Domonkos Doczi and Bence Attila Streli (21-15, 21-19).
PNVF president Ramon Suzara hopes the top Philippine pairs can earn enough points to get a shot at wild card places in the Beach Volleyball World Championships in Adelaide, Australia in November.
“Sisi and Bernadeth played very well, the chemistry is still there. Making the quarterfinals in this field is impressive,” Suzara, who also serves as Asian Volleyball Confederation president, said.
Sakura Ito and Mayu Sawame of Japan conquered Ieva Dumbauskaite and Gerda Grudzinskaite of Lithuania, 21-17, 15-21, 15-13, Sunday to advance to the women’s final against New Zealand’s Polley and MacDonald, who beat Vaida and Francesca Ioana Alupei, 21-10, 21-19.
Eylon Elazar and Kevin Cuzmiciov of Israel won over Stavros Ntallas and Dimitris Chatzinikolaou of Greece, 22-20, 21-11, to forge a men’s title duel with Lubos Nemec and Adrian Petruf, who prevailed over Oskars Bulgacs and Matiss Graudins of Latvia, 25-23, 21-10. (PNA)
