University of the Philippines turned back San Beda University, 20-25, 25-17, 25-17, 25-22, 25-20, to book a ticket in the quarterfinals of the Philippine National Volleyball Federation (PNVF) Challenge Cup on Sunday at the Rizal Memorial Coliseum in Manila.
The Fighting Maroons pulled off a reverse sweep from a set down against the Lady Red Spikers in the battle between unscathed squads in almost two hours of play for a 3-0 slate in Pool D on their way to the knockout Top-8.
UP earlier dominated Lyceum of the Philippines University-Batangas, 25-14, 25-11, 25-17, and La Salle-Dasmariñas, 25-16, 25-27, 25-8, 25-16.
San Beda, despite dropping to 2-1, still punched a ticket in the next round of ther 16-team women’s division supported by the Philippine Sports Commission headed by chairman Richard Bachmann, PLDT, Rebisco, Akari, Foton and CBPI.
The Lady Red Spikers claimed the second seeding in Pool D courtesy of wins against La Salle-Dasma, 25-19, 25-17, 25-16 and LPU-Batangas, 25-17, 25-13, 25-18.
In other women’s division games, UP Volleyball Club (1-1) stayed in playoff contention in Pool A with a 25-11, 25-15, 25-16 win over the Volida VolleybalL Club (0-2)
Jose Rizal U (2-1) joined the Philippine Air Force (3-0) as the quarterfinalists from Pool C after a 25-13, 25-16, 25-13 win over Tacloban City-EV (0-3).
In men’s play, UAAP champion National University and runner-up University of Santo Tomas inched closer to sweeping their respective pools to spice their quarterfinal qualification.
NU fended off the University of the East-Cherrylume, 25-22, 25-23, 25-20, for a 3-0 card in Pool B as UST thwarted Iloilo, 25-23, 25-23, 25-2 for the same record in Pool D.
VNS Asereht with a 25-11, 25-19, 25-17 win over Arellano finished its campaign at 3-1, with its lone loss coming against NU, to join the latter as quarterfinalists of Pool B in the 20-team men’s division of the Challenge Cup by the PNVF headed by Ramon “Tats” Suzara.
