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By Joel Orellana, Reporter
BORACAY: The search for new king
and queen of beach volleyball is on as Nestea Beach Volley 2007
finals plunges back into action Thursday in this pristine and
world-famous island paradise.
After a hotly-contested
elimination round for Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao, 18 teams are in
hot pursuit for this the top prize of P150,000 each for men’s and
women’s titlists.
But besides the cash prize, at
stake is also the pride and prestige to become the new champions of
the annual summer spikefest .
The Nestea Beach 2007 is
sponsored by Speedo, Mikasa, Villa de Oro Boracay Beach Resort
Hotel, Boracay Mandarin Island Hotel, Boracay Gold Crowne Club
Microtel Inns and Sutes Boracay, Hey! Jude @ D’ Mall, D’Mall
D’Boracay, La Salle Green Hills, Schering Plough Coppertone,
Crystal Sand and Nautilus by PJ Aranador.
Perennial powerhouse Far Eastern
University leads the cast from Luzon that also included Philippine
Christian University and St. Francis of Assisi for the men’s
division. FEU also has an entry in the distaff side along with
Lyceum University and Adamson University.
Visayas elimination top qualifier
University of San Carlos heads the semifinalists in their region
that also included University of the Southern Philippines Foundation
and 2001 champion Foundation University in the men’s group.
In the women’s side, University
of San Jose-Recoletos, University of the Visayas and three-time
champion Southwestern University are all set to grab the crown.
Mindanao region will be bannered
by Mindanao State University Tawi-Tawi, Capitol University,
Tawi-Tawi Regional Agricultural College in the men’s division
while University of Mindanao-Tagum, Holy Cross of Davao College and
University of Mindanao-Davao are the qualifiers in the women’s
division.
The Nestea Beach Volley, now on
its 11th year, becomes more interesting as defending champions
Adamson University (men’s) and College of St. Benilde (women’s)
are not here to defend their respective titles as they failed to
conquer the tough field in the elimination round held in LSGH sand
court.
The second placer in each
division will receive P75,000 while the third-best team goes home
with P50,000.
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