Sisi Rondina and Bernadeth Pons of Petron Sprint 4T essayed a fitting ending to their perfect campaign when they demolished Fiola Ceballos and Patty Orendain of Generika-Ayala A, 21-12, 21-8, to emerge champions of the 2017 Belo Philippine Superliga (PSL) Beach Volleyball Challenge Cup last night at the SM By the Bay in Mall of Asia.
Two of the best sand players today, Rondina and Pons were impressive from start to finish en route to winning the title of this prestigious tourney backed by Stoked, Mikasa, Mizuno, Senoh, Rebisco and SM By the Bay.
Settling for the bronze medal was the tandem of Bang Pineda and Frances Molina of Petron XCS, which edged the pair of Danika Gendrauli and Jackie Estoquia of Sta. Lucia, 10-21, 21-14, 15-9, while ousted champion Jovelyn Gonzaga and Maica Morada of Cignal HD A claimed fifth place following a 21-15, 26-28, 15-11 thrashing of Mylene Paat and Janine Marciano of Cignal B.
Meanwhile, Marijo Medalla and Bianca Tripoli of Perpetual took home seventh place after notching a 21-13, 21-19 triumph over Wensh Tiu and Abie Naval of Cocolife.
Also emerging with a crown were Anthony Arbastro and Calvin Sarte of Generika-Ayala, who clobbered EJ Ramos and Edmar Bonono of Cignal HD, 21-17, 21-18, in the finals of the men’s division.
Arbastro, a University of Santo Tomas standout and reigning UAAP beach volley champion, played with Sarte for the first time, but looked very comfortable with each other to complete a seven-game sweep of this tourney, which also has TV5 as official broadcast partner.
Mike Abria and Edwin Tolentino of SM By the Bay settled for third place following a 21-19, 23-21 win over Rey and Relan Taneo of Perpetual Help in the classification round.
Arbastro, the tourney’s Most Valuable Player, said patience paid off as they didn’t panic despite trailing by three during the crucial stretch of the first set, 14-17.
“They (Cignal) were ahead in the first set but we didn’t panic. We just played good defense and enjoyed the game to make it a fund game,” said Arbastro, whose original partner, Kris Roy Guzman, dropped out of the tourney at the last-minute to attend to his academic commitment at UST.