PLDT Fibr Holdover Shola Alvarez Get The Better Of New Teammate Nieza Viray

Two lovely ladies made our night shine brighter as PLDT Home Fibr Hitters Nieza Viray and Maria Shola Alvarez showcase their talent, wit, and the funny side behind their game-face in the field of volleyball.

Nieza Viray, an off-season acquisition of the Roger Gorayeb-coached team in the Premier Volleyball League (PVL), is one of the finest players of San Beda Lady Red Spikers as she won Rookie of the Year honors in NCAA Season 91 women’s volleyball and awarded as a 2-time NCAA beach volleyball MVP. Meanwhile, Shola Alvarez is the NCAA Season 93 MVP in women’s volleyball tournament and one of the holdovers of the PLDT team from the Philippine Superliga.

Fresh from their morning training in the bubble where they are preparing for the upcoming season of the PVL, the two shifted from spiking to singing in a challenge called “Dugtungan… Volleyball Style” to determine who will book a ticket to the next round of Smart E-lympics.

The game mechanic is just simple, the players just needed to sing a song using the last word that their opponent sang while doing volleyball moves at the same time. Whoever got 3 points first wins the challenge.

Shola goes first after winning the jack en poy round and she sang “Sa Iyo” by Sarah Geronimo and chooses “Sa iyo” as the final word of her song. Iza got some trouble thinking of a song with the same lyrics and with a few seconds remaining suddenly sang “Pangako sayo”. However, it was not considered by the hosts and the point goes to Shola.

Trying to tie the game, Iza sang “Ako ay May Lobo” a popular Filipino children’s song, and stopped with the word “nakuha”. Sholay failed to quip any song with that word and the round ended with a tied score of 1-1.

The next round starts with Shola singing “Kapag Tumibok Ang Puso” popularized by Donna Cruz and she ended it immediately with the last word of the first line of the chorus, “puso”. Iza easily taught of a song and sang “Pusong Lito”, she returned the favor to Shola by ending her song to word “iyo”. Wittily, Shola just sang her first song “Sa Iyo” and ended it with “pag-ibig”. Iza fights back and sing “pag-ibig na walang hanggan”. Shola runs out of song and succumbed to the word “hanggan”, which Iza uses as the last word of her last song. The score is now 2-1 in favor of Iza.

The battle continues with both players rocking their A-game. Iza provided a challenging last word to follow by using “pa” from the song “Sana Ngayong Pasko”. However, it was wittily answered by Shola by singing the theme song of noontime show Showtime which she ended by using the word “Ra”. Despite the strange word, Iza proves that she has a lot left on her tank by singing “Bad Romance” of Lady Gaga which put the hosts and her opponent to amaze as she grittily escaped the round with her intellect.

The round continues with the last word of “Ma” from Iza easily turned back by Shola by singing “Mahal ko o mahal ako”. Iza returned the favor back by singing once again “Ako ay may lobo” then Shola sang “Pagibig ko’y mapansin” as the last word from Iza is “langit”. She ended it with the word “tayo” which proves to be the knockout punch for the round as Iza failed to answer it back with any song.

Iza seems to be run out of gas and cannot manufacture any more song out of her mind until the time elapsed as she loses the do-or-die round quickly after Shola uses the word “lahat” from the song “Paubaya”.

With the come from behind victory, Shola advances to the quarter-final round of the competition.

The return of the volleyball competition is nearer and it’s good to see the other side of the players before they step their foot on the court and battle it out for their respective teams.

Catch Smart E-lympics every Wednesday and Saturday at seven in the evening on the Facebook page and Youtube channel of Smart Sports.