MARIKINA City – Bacolod Tay Tung High School Thunderbolts-reinforced Western Visayas secondary girls volleyball team have made their way back to the finals of the 2023 Palarong Pambansa.
The Ian Macariola-mentored volleybelles made it back to the finale after scoring a 25-21, 25-14, 25-18 victory over Region 11 in the semifinals on Thursday morning at the Marikina Sports Center here.
Jihan Chuatico was once again named as the Player of the Game for the WV secondary girls volleyball team, which will face National Capital Region-Nazareth School of National University Lady Bullpups in the finals on Friday noon.
The Lady Bulldogs, the reigning UAAP Season 85 girls volleyball champions, reached the finals after a 25-19, 25-19, 28-26 sweep of Calabarzon, represented by California Academy Precision Sports.
The Thunderbolts defeated the Lady Bulldogs, 25-21, 15-25, 25-15, during their group stage encounter last Tuesday, but Macariola knew that the NCR team will be much tougher to beat in the finals.
“We expect them to bounce back,” Macariola told Panay News. “We will just prepare for them and the players are also hungry to get back at them kasi NCR din tumalo sa WV during the last Palarong Pambansa (finals).”
The WV-Tay Tung and NCR-NU also faced each other in the finals of 2019 Palarong Pambansa secondary girls volleyball tournament where the latter scored a come-from-behind five-setter victory.
The WV was then led by Joan Marie Monares, now of University of the Philippines, and Alyssa Bertolano, now of Quezon City Gerflor Defenders, while NCR was bannered by now NU stars Mhicaela Belen and Alyssa Solomon.
Meanwhile, Western Visayas’ elementary boys football team recorded their second consecutive win as they defeated Region 1, 9-0, at the University of the Philippines Football Field.
Drystan Alexandrae Delgado-Torres spearheaded the offense for the Central Elementary School-represented WV booters with two goals as they improved to 2-0 in the tournament./PN
