THE ATENEO Men’s and Women’s Beach Volleyball Teams end the first day of the University Athletic Association of the Philippines (UAAP) Season 85 Beach Volleyball Tournament with mixed results.

The Women’s Team’s lone match today ended in a loss which put them at 0-1, landing them at seventh out of eight in the overall standings. Meanwhile, the Men’s Team played two matches where they won their first match, but were unsuccessful in securing another win for the Blue and White. This opening day performance put the Men’s Team in fourth place out of eight in the tournament standings.

In the Women’s division, Team Captain Pia Ildefonso and rookie Yssa Nisperos led the charge for the Blue Eagles. However, it was a rough first game for the new tandem as they got swept in straight sets, 8-21, 15-21, by their archrivals De La Salle University Lady Archers. 

Over in the Men’s division, the powerful duo of Jian Salarzon and Amil Pacinio marked their opening day with a straight-set victory over the Adamson University Soaring Falcons, 21-18, 22-20. Despite their impressive sweep, the Blue Eagles failed to sustain their winning momentum as they fell short against the three-peat defending champions, University of Santo Tomas (UST) Tiger Spikers, 12-21, 18-21. 

Both Katipunan-based squads will have several chances of bouncing back. For the Women’s Team, they will be facing the National University Lady Bulldogs and the UST Lady Spikers at 11:20 AM and 2:40 PM, respectively. While the Men’s Team will go head-to-head with the University of the East Red Warriors at 2:00 PM. All three games will be played on November 20, at Sands SM by the Bay in Pasay City. 

Set Scores:

Women’s Division

Ateneo-DLSU: 8-21, 15-21

Men’s Division 

Ateneo-AdU: 21-19, 22-20 

Ateneo- UST: 12-21, 18-21