The Bohol defense on full display against Cebu in the men’s volleyball finale of the Prisaa yesterday at the USPF gym. CDN PHOTO/LITO TECSON
Prisaa volleyball
Bohol made history when its men’s volleyball team completed a 5-set upset of Cebu in their rubber match in the men’s volleyball competition of the 2018 Private Schools Athletic Association (Prisaa) regional meet yesterday at the University of Southern Philippines Foundation (USPF) gym.
Bohol, made up mostly of spikers from the University of Bohol (UB), shocked the University of San Jose-Recoletos (USJ-R)-manned Cebu team, 23-25, 25-18, 26-28, 25-20, 15-9, to earn the right to represent Central Visayas in the National Prisaa competition this coming April. Incidentally, the nationals will be held in Bohol this year.
Tournament Director Jordan Paca said it is the first time in the history of the Prisaa regional competition that Cebu was beaten by Bohol in the men’s volleyball finale.
Bohol Head Coach Lemuel Belarmino confirmed this, saying that the last time a team from Bohol defeated Cebu was in 2002 while he was still a player. At that time, though, Bohol won only one of the three-game series and it was not enough to bring them to the nationals.
“We are very thankful to God [for the win]. We entrusted to him everything,” Belarmino said of his team, which also has one player from the Bohol Institute of Technology-International College (BIT-IC).
Not impossible
According to Belarmino, they weren’t able to properly train for the multi-sporting event because they weren’t supposed to represent Bohol since they lost to BIT-IC in the 7th season of the Bohol Schools Athletic Association, Bohol’s equivalent to the Cebu Schools Athletic Foundation Inc. (Cesafi), which is the qualifying tournament for the Prisaa regionals.
He only found out last month that UB will be the ones to compete in the regionals when BIT-IC decided to give way.
According to Belarmino, he gave his team a pep talk after forcing a rubber match when they won Game 2 of the best-of-three on Saturday.
“[I told them] this is not only for you but for the people who are left there in Bohol. For the community back home. It is not impossible. It is not that Cebu cannot be defeated,” he said.
Belarmino shared that he had a feeling his team had a chance of winning this year after he learned that Cebu will be manned by an all-USJ-R lineup.
Belarmino and his team are quite familiar with the USJ-R Jaguars, having played against them numerous times in different tournaments in Cebu and Bohol.
With a chance to represent Central Visayas against some of the best private schools in the country, Belarmino couldn’t hide his excitement.
“Excited because they will get to play in front of their hometown. It is a big opportunity,” said Belarmino.
Despite not being able to sweep the volleyball event, Cebu will still form the bulk of Central Visayas athletes for this year’s National Finals.
Cebu Prisaa added titles in athletics and beach volleyball yesterday.
Although they failed to sweep the karatedo and taekwondo events, they still dominated these events.
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