ALAS Pilipinas' sand queens Sisi Rondina and Bernadeth Pons made a victorious return to beach volleyball in the 2025 Beach Pro Tour Futures in Nuvali on Friday.
READ: Rondina, Pons to represent PH in SEA Games beach volleyball
With less than a month’s worth of training since the end of the 2024-25 PVL All-Filipino Conference, the ‘SiPons’ duo joined the international tournament as one of five Alas Pilipinas pairs in women’s play.
Their opening match in the main draw was against young compatriots Khylem Progella and Sofia Pagara, who pushed them to the distance.
The Progella-Pagara duo overcame a strong start by Rondina and Pons but was unable to stop a much stronger finish by the veteran pair.
In the end, Rondina and Pons drew first blood in the tournament with a 21-17, 18-21, 15-12 come-from-behind win in an all-Filipino duel.
Just about five hours later under the scorching Nuvali heat, ‘SiPons’ took the sands to take on its first foreign opposition in USA power duo Melissa Powell and Lindsay Calvin.
It was a heated duel that produced the same winning outcome as the bemedalled duo defended home ground with a quick 21-15, 25-14 sweep.
Mixed bag of results for Alas
Still in women’s play, the duo of Kathrina Epa and Honey Cordero won its first two qualification matches against teams from Australian and Japan to reach the main draw.
Other than that, no other Philippine team scored a win on opening day of the Beach Pro Tour Futures.
Sunny Villapando and Jenny Gaviola were swept by Romania just before the Epa-Cordero duo suffered the same fate in their first main draw match against Lithuania.
There wasn’t that much luck either in men’s play as the Alas tandems of James Buytrago-Rancel Varga and Ronniel Rosales-Alex Iraya both yielded to Israeli teams in straight sets.
Edwin Tolentino and Lerry Francisco also bowed down in a two-set sweep at the hands of Czechia while the Criss Cross duo of three-time Spikers’ Turf MVP Jude Garcia and Jaron Requinton failed to mark their return to the sands with a win after losing to Germany.
Three more days of sands action await until the conclusion of the group stage on May 2 before the knockout stage unfolds on May 3 and 4.
For 'SiPons' and the rest of the Alas contingent, this competition is the first of more to come ahead of the year-ending 33rd Southeast Asian (SEA) Games in Thailand in December.
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