Gretchen Ho ‘planning’ for bigger beach volleyball events

Gretchen Ho. Contibuted Photos

Count on Gretchen Ho to plan something bigger for the development of Philippine volleyball, this time in the sand courts.

As the 13-hour King and Queen of the Sands kicked off in one interesting Saturday at Sands by the Bay in Mall of Asia Arena, Ho said the one-day tournament would be a precedent for something bigger.

“We’re planning to come up with bigger events,” Ho, one of the organizers and players, said. “We are testing different formulas so in the future there will be bigger events just like this.”

In their tournament, there were eight male and eight female competitors who would pair up with each other and play in a round-robin stage.

Once all the players have paired, and played, with each other, whoever has the most accumulated points in the race-to-21 sets moves on to the next round.

For example, Ho gets 21 points for every set she wins or she gets her team’s point total in case of a loss.

Ho admits playing in the sand is more relaxed compared to playing the traditional six-on-six indoor variety.

“I love playing beach volleyball because it’s much more relaxed but it is still very intense because there are only two of you in your side of the court,” Ho said who played college volleyball with Ateneo.

“Beach volleyball challenges you especially on defense…it forces you to improve your all-around game.”

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