INSPIRED by the roar of the crowd in their comeback tournament, Sisi Rondina and Bernadeth Pons vowed to polish their game after their sizzling run in the Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour Futures Nuvali ended in the quarterfinals.
The Alas Pilipinas pair got the sellout crowd at the Nuvali Sand Courts going, but could not sustain their strong start, falling to Romania’s Beata Vaida and Francesca Ioana Alupei, 21-18, 19-21, 12-15, last Saturday in Santa Rosa.
Pons deftly scored with rolls and tip shots but was visibly frustrated as she couldn’t get the timing right in blocking, while the high-flying Rondina had her usual explosive shots but struggled with accuracy in their first beach volleyball tournament after focusing on indoor competition the past two years.
“I’m proud of our performance here. The preparation was really short, but we worked hard for this. Unfortunately, we fell short,” Pons said, noting they had less than a week to train for the event featuring 19 countries.
“We have a lot to work on, I was looking to get that one kill block because that would have been huge in a close match like this. But this is still a good start and we’ll do better in the next events,” she added.
Rondina pledged to do everything she could to fight for medals in future tournaments, with the Southeast Asian Games in December as her main goal.
“I’m very grateful for the opportunity and we deeply appreciate the warm reception,” the 28-year-old Rondina said.
“So amazing! It just feels so bad that it ended early.”
Three matches in a scorching day proved too much for Khylem Progella and Sofia Pagara as they lost steam in the quarterfinals, bowing to Asian Volleyball Confederation (AVC) Beach Tour Nuvali Open silver medalists Shaunna Polley and Olivia MacDonald of New Zealand, 17-21, 14-21.
The University of Santo Tomas stars earlier scored an impressive 21-16, 21-17 victory over Vanuatu’s Sherysyn Toko and Majabelle Lawac, winners on the Australia Beach Volleyball Tour in 2023, in the Round of 12 after getting past Dutch spikers Danieke Prins and Annemieke Driessen, 23-25, 21-11, 15-10.
James Buytrago and Rancel Varga could not duplicate their silver medal finish in last year’s Futures Nuvali tournament as Eylon Elazar and Kevin Cuzmiciov of Israel won their quarterfinal showdown, 21-17, 21-15, in the tournament organized by the Philippine National Volleyball Federation headed by its president Ramon “Tats” Suzara, who is also the president of the AVC and Executive Vice President of the world volleyball governing body FIVB.
Buytrago and Varga earlier downed Australia’s Finley Bennett and Jed Walker, 21-17, 21-16, in the Round of 12 after beating Hungary’s Domonkos Doczi and Bence Attila Streli, 21-15, 21-19, in the event backed by Ayala Land, Nuvali Evoliving, Philippine Olympic Committee, Philippine Sports Commission, PLDT Home, Rebisco, Akari, Mikasa, Microtel by Wyndham South Forbes, Cignal, One Sports, Pilipinas Live, Senoh, Alibaba Cloud, ialchemy, One Over Zero Technologies and Supreme Infotech Solutions.
Rondina and Pons, bronze medalists in the Southeast Asian Games in 2019 and 2021 before returning to indoor volleyball in 2023, and the other national beach volleyball pairs will compete in Europe and other overseas events.
Suzara is also hoping the top Philippine tandems can earn enough points to get a shot at wild card places in the Beach Volleyball World Championships Adelaide in November.
“Sisi and Bernadeth played very well, the chemistry is still there,” Suzara said. “Making the quarterfinals in this field is impressive.”
Sakura Ito and Mayu Sawame of Japan defeated Ieva Dumbauskaite and Gerda Grudzinskaite of Lithuania, 21-17, 15-21, 15-13, on Sunday to advance to the women’s final against New Zealand’s Polley and MacDonald, who beat Vaida and Francesca Ioana Alupei, 21-10, 21-19.
Eylon Elazar and Kevin Cuzmiciov of Israel marched on to the final with a 22-20, 21-11 win over Stavros Ntallas and Dimitris Chatzinikolaou of Greece. Lubos Nemec and Adrian Petruf claimed the other final spot after beating Oskars Bulgacs and Matiss Graudins of Latvia, 25-23, 21-10.
