USJ-R, USC v’belles in collision course

Almost a month ago, the University of San Carlos (USC) and University of San Jose-Recoletos (USJ-R) clashed for the Cesafi women’s volleyball crown.

The Warriors went on to bag the title via a 2-0 sweep in the best-of-three finals.

Today, both teams can forge a finals rematch if they topple their respective semifinal foes in the women’s beach volleyball competition to be held at the Fort San Pedro sand court at the Plaza Independencia.

USJ-R, the top-seeded team, faces the fourth-ranked Cebu Doctors’ University (CDU) Falcons while the third-seeded USC takes on no. 2 team University of Southern Philippines Foundation (USPF).

Winners will meet in the finals to be held Saturday at the same venue.

Should USJ-R and USC topple their foes and advance to the championship round, Lady Warriors head coach Grace Antigua admits her team will have a tough time against the Jaguars.

“Experience-wise, USJ-R has the upper hand,” Antigua told Cebu Daily News. “But [if ever we meet], we won’t give in easily. We will put up a good fight.”

Prior to the start of the competition, Antigua mentioned she doesn’t expect much from her trio since all three are rookies.

USC is composed of freshmen Mary Louise Querubin, Jinniane Berdos and Jaslyn Geconcillo.

But the three exceeded Antigua’s expectations.

“I never expected [my players] to come up with such excellent performance [because] they are all rookies and all freshmen.”

The Lady Jaguars, meanwhile, are also considering the possibility of a rematch and this time, they want to make sure they can capitalize on their advantages.

“The advantages that we have against USC is that we already know what their weaknesses are,” said veteran player Linlyn Torado, who has played beach volley for four years now.

“And our coach, Norvie Labuga, also encouraged us to do our best.”

The semis in the girls’ division will also be held today. Semifinalists are USPF, Southwestern University (SWU)-PHINMA, USJ-R and University of Cebu (UC).