TWO TEAMS from the University of Santo Tomas (UST) Growling Tigers’ women’s beach volleyball will spearhead the Manila participants of the upcoming Rider Beach Volleyball Tournament slated Friday and Saturday at the Green Lagoon Park in Compostela town, northern Cebu.
The UST Cebuana tandem of Cherry Rondina and Rica Rivera, who towed the Growling Tigers to a championship finish in the latest season of the Universities Athletic Association of the Philippines (UAAP) women’s beach volleyball, will be arriving tomorrow for the two-day tournament, which is part of the Ipanema Summer Sunscream Festival.
After their conquest in the UAAP, Rondina and Rivera added another feather to UST’s championship cap during the 2015 National Nestea Beach Volleyball Championship in Boracay early this month after they bagged the championship diadem.
Rondina and Rivera’s UST teammates, Mandaue City’s Mary Dominique Pacres and Jem Nicole Gutierrez from Manila will also arrive tomorrow to join the competition.
Aside from the UST volleybelles, also set to reach Cebu City tomorrow is the pair of Jessica Margarett Galanza and Mylene Paat of the Adamson University Falcons, who snared the third spot in the UAAP.
Meanwhile, one of Cebu’s top teams, the University of Southern Philippines-Foundation (USP-F), may be a doubtful participant for the event.
USP-F was to be represented by Gelly Murpos and Rochelle Rica. But Rica figured in a car accident recently, making her unsure of joining.
“We are having a hard time looking for a replacement,“ USP-F head coach Thelma Datig said.