University of Santo Tomas (UST), National University (NU), Angatleta-Orion (Bataan) and Umingan (Pangasinan) loom as the heavy favorites with their unblemished records that they will stake against separate opponents in the knockout semifinals of the Philippine National Volleyball Federation (PNVF) Under-18 boys and girls championships on Friday at the Rizal Memorial Coliseum.
All eyes though are on the Junior Golden Tigresses and Lady Bullpups in girls’ play while Orion and Umingan banner boys’ action in their bid to arrange championship duels on Sunday.
UST takes on Kings’ Montessori School at 10 a.m., NU’s battles La Salle-Lipa at 12:30 p.m., Orion collides with VNS-Savouge at 3 p.m. and Umingan tackles Canossa Academy of Lipa City at 5:30 p.m. in the semifinals of the annual tournament organized by the Philippine National Volleyball Federation headed by Ramon “Tats” Suzara.
Students from the schools seeing action in the semifinals Friday, classification matches on Saturday and finals on Sunday could watch the games for free—all they need is to show their school ID cards.
The Junior Golden Tigresses and Lady Bulldogs clawed and bullied their way unopposed in the girls’ competition and booked convincing quarterfinal victories to advance deeper in the tournament—UST eliminated Canossa Academy, 25-13, 25-15, 25-12 and NU trounced fellow University Athletic Association of the Philippines bet La Salle-Zobel, 25-18, 25-16, 25-17.
Orion and Umingan were as dominant in boys’ play over Taytay (Rizal) and Philippine Christian University on 25-23, 25-19, 25-18 and 25-22, 25-12, 25-18 victories, respectively.
In the girls’ quarterfinals, Kings’ Montessori School posted an equally big 25-15, 25-18, 25-12 win over San Juan Institute of Technology-Batangas to earn a shot at UST as La Salle-Lipa smothered Gracel Christian College, 25-14, 25-13, 25-21 to win a right of challenging powerhouse NU.
Set on Saturday (April 27) are the classification matches for fifth to eighth places for both genders starting at 10 a.m. with the last match set at 5:30 p.m., while scheduled for Sunday are the battle for bronze at 10 a.m. for boys and 12:30 p.m. for girls and the gold medal duels at 3 p.m. for the girls and 5:30 p.m. for the boys.