Alas Pilipinas teams showcase skills in Asian seniors beach volley
Posted: 2024-Nov-01 17.00 +0800
ASIAN SENIOR CHAMPIONSHIPS. Iran's Abbas Pourasgari (left) and Alireza Aghajanighasab celebrate their victory at the Nuvali Open on April 7, 2024. They are joining the Asian Seniors Championships starting on Nov. 6, 2024. (PNA)
MANILA – Local fans will be treated to top-notch action anew in the Asian Senior Beach Volleyball Championships starting on Nov. 6 at the Nuvali Sand Courts in Santa Rosa City, Laguna.
"Again, the Philippines and Nuvali become the epicenter of beach volleyball with some of the continent's, if not the world's, best showcasing their elite skills before Filipino fans," Asian Volleyball Confederation and Philippine National Volleyball Federation president Ramon "Tats" Suzara said on Thursday.
Ran Abdilla and James Buytrago, bronze medalists at the 2023 Southeast Asian Games in Cambodia, will team up again to beat their fancied rivals from Asia and Oceania.
Three pairs from Australia and two from New Zealand are in the 24-team field.
Rancel Varga, a two-time MVP in the UAAP, will be paired with Lerry John Francisco of the Philippine Coast Guard.
Varga teamed up with Buytrago in the 2024 FIVB Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour Futures in April and partnered with Abdilla in the Futures tournament in China in September where they had a 1-2 record.
Twenty pairs have been seeded to the main draw, with four more spots to be disputed by 15 teams in the qualifying phase.
Former Perpetual Help star Ronniel Rosales and former National University stalwart Edwin Tolentino are the third Filipino squad going through the qualifying round.
In the women's division, the Philippines is pinning its hopes on former UST teammates Khylem Progella and Sofiah Pagara, who reached the quarterfinals of the 2024 FIVB Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour Futures Qingdao.
They finished 2-1 in the preliminaries, including a three-set win over compatriots Gen Eslapor and Kly Orillaneda, but were beaten by Japan's Asami Shiba and Chika Nakagawa in the quarterfinals.
The Japanese tandem bagged the bronze medal.
Shiba, however, will team up with Saki Maruyama in the Asian Senior Championships.
Nuvali Open champions Stefanie Fejes and Jana Milutinovic of Australia are also competing along with Eslapor and Orillaneda, who went 1-2 in Qingdao, and the pair of Army's Alexa Polidario and the Coast Guard's Jenny Gaviola.
Seven pairs are in the qualifying event, with four advancing to the main draw. (PNA)