RISING stars Babylove Barbon and Gen Eslapor in action. BVR PHOTO
MANILA, Philippines–– The Philippines’ Babylove Barbon and Gen Eslapor begin their campaign in the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour Boracay Open when it opens Thursday at White House Beach Station in Boracay.
The young standouts from the highly-successful University of Santo Tomas beach volleyball program hope to make it to Friday’s main draw when the qualification matches start at 7:30 a.m.
The host country has four women’s teams in the main draw with Sisi Rondina reuniting with Bernadeth Pons in the four-day tournament organized by the Beach Volleyball Republic.
Other Filipina pairs competing are Dij Rodriguez and Bea Tan, Jackie Estoquia and DM Demontaño, and Fiola Ceballos and Patty Orendain.
Barbon, who paired with Rondina in the Tigresses’ remarkable three-peat conquest in the UAAP, and Eslapor are among the seven women’s pairs vying for slots in Friday’s main draw. They will face Gerda Grudzinskaite and Karole Virbickaite of Lithuania in the afternoon session at 2 p.m.
Before competing in the Beach World Tour, Barbon and Eslapon emerged victorious in the BVR on Tour Dumaguete Open last month.
“The goal of the BVR national tour is to give our local players an opportunity to increase their competition level to the international level,” said BVR co-founder and tournament director Charo Soriano.
Air Force’s Ranran Abdilla and Jesse Lopez, meanwhile, spearhead the country’s men’s campaign, which also includes collegiate standouts James Buytrago and Krung Arbasto, and Cebu’s Mike Abria and Jade Becaldo.
“Teams have been training for this and we’ve been helping them through the BVR tours we’ve been holding,” said Soriano.
The $10,000 Boracay Open, a one-star event, is the 24th men’s and 23rd women’s event for the 2018-19 FIVB World Tour. The Beach World Tour returns to the Philippines for the second time following a double-gender one-star event in Manila last year.