PSL beach volley: Petron’s Rondina-Pons duo start title-defense bid

Defending champion Petron XCS was off to a good start as it kicked back Generika-Ayala A 19-21, 21-14, 15-8, in the opening day of the Philippine Superliga Beach Volleyball Challenge Cup Wednesday at Mall of Asia’s Sands by the Bay.

Cherry Rondina and Bernadeth Pons, the same partnership who represented the Philippines in the 29th Southeast Asian Beach Volleyball Championships in Singapore, had to fight back from a one-set deficit to Fiola Ceballos and Patty Orendain in their finals rematch.

Rondina said she and Pons had to adjust on the fly, as they didn’t have that much time to train together as the latter just finished her season with Far Eastern University in the UAAP and both didn’t practice in an environment where no shade covered the court whatsoever.

“We had a hard time moving through the court because we didn’t practice here, and Bernadeth just joined me after the UAAP,” said Rondina in Filipino.

“We’re training in UST [University of Santo Tomas] wherein it’s not that hot and the court has trees over it, not this kind of environment where the sun is just blazing,” said Pons.

Cignal A’s Mylena Paat and Rap Aguilar recovered from a disappointing second set to fend off Generika-Ayala B’s Bang Pineda and Sheeka Espinosa for the 21-19, 5-21, 16-14 victory to top Pool B.