Gilligan’s, Foton Tornadoes forge Superliga Beach Volley title duel

Gilligan’s and Foton Tornadoes came up with impressive victories over their respective foes Saturday night to arrange a title encounter in the PLDT Home Ultera Philippine Superliga Beach Volleyball Challenge Cup 2015 powered by Smart Live More at Sands By the Bay in SM Mall of Asia.

Playing before a big weekend crowd that stayed up until the evening matches, Danika Gendrauli and Jane Diaz of Gilligan’s outlasted Cignal B’s erstwhile unbeaten pair of Wensh Tiu and April Ross Hingpit, 25-23, 18-21, 15-3.

Later in the evening, Fiola Ceballos and Patty Orendain of Foton Tornadoes dumped Bea Tan and Pau Soriano from their sister team Foton Hurricanes, 21-18, 21-16.

The semifinal winners will dispute the inaugural PSL beach volley crown this Saturday. Clashing for the men’s title are SM By the Bay and Champion Infinity B. Both finals will be aired live over TV 5.

“We really tried very hard to choose who will receive our services; that spelled the big difference,” said Gendrauli in Filipino. “That was our strategy.”

Gilligan’s eliminated Amy’s Samantha Dawson and Marleen Cortel, 21-14, 21-11, in the quarterfinals of the tournament organized by Sports Core with Accel as official outfitter, Senoh as technical sponsor, Sands By the Bay and Maynilad as official water provider.

The Tornadoes made the semifinals with a 21-19, 21-12 triumph over Philips Gold of Rossan Fajardo and Aileen Abuel.

Petron XCS repulsed Philips, 21-18, 21-13, to snag fifth place while Meralco downed Amy’s, 21-17, 21-19, to place sixth.