Fancied VNS Asereht-Savouge and upstart Umingan, Pangasinan rolled past their respective counterparts while three more teams scored big wins to set the pace in the men’s division Philippine National Volleyball Federation (PNVF) Under-18 Championship on Saturday, March 23, at the Rizal Memorial Coliseum.
The younger Griffins met little to no resistance in running away with a 25-12, 25-12 win over Colegio de Los Baños while Umingan escaped with a 22-25, 25-15, 25-18 comeback win against Hermosa, Bataan for 1-0 slates in Pool B.
Drawing inspiration from its brothers who made back-to-back Final Four finishes in the PNVF Champions League, VNS needed only 38 minutes to barge into the win column in style with massive 13-point victories in each of the two sets.
Umingan, for its part, had to buck off a slow start by dominating Hermosa in the last two sets for the gritty win in almost an hour of the 12-team tourney under a best-of-three format.
In the other Pool B match, Taytay, Rizal also pulled off a reverse sweep against Aguaveia Volleyball Club with a 22-25, 25-21, 25-19 win to make it an early three-way tie with VNS and Umingan.
Over in Pool A, Canossa Academy-Lipa and Angatleta-Orion, Bataan zoomed to joint leadership with constrasting victories.
Angatleta clobbered Batangas Christian School, 25-23, 25-19, as Canossa Academy carved out a gritty 25-19, 20-25, 25-23 win over the Philippine Christian University.
Action heats up today with another six-game bill bannered by the 2-0 bid of women’s heavyweight National University.
NU (1-0), after an emphatic 25-10, 25-12 win against Colegio de Los Baños, takes on Parañaque City at 10 a.m. followed by the duel between the debuting La Salle-Lipa and San Juan Institute of Technology-Batangas (1-0) at 11:30 a.m. both in the same Pool B.
Limitless Sports Center and Maryhill College-Lucena also march to their first match at 1 p.m. in Pool A to cap the explosive opening weekend of the women’s division.
In the men’s play, La Salle-Lipa shoots for first win against the vengeful PCU at 2:30 p.m., in Pool A while Umingan, Pangasinan and VNS eye second straight win against Aguaveia Volleyball Club at 4 p.m. and Hermosa, Bataan at 5:30 p.m., respectively.
Games in three-setter formats are played every Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays for the single-round eliminations within their respective pools in both women’s and men’s divisions before implementing a regular five-set match in the playoffs.
Only the top four teams from each pool will advance to the quarterfinals, to be played under a knockout format until the semifinals and the championship for the youth crown of the PNVF headed by President Ramon “Tats” Suzara.
