Tag: 2008

FRAYED nerves on the receiving end denied the UST Lady Spikers a fourth Shakey’s V-League crown, allowing the title-hungry San Sebastian College Lady Stags to snatch the tournament’s fifth season diadem via a 25-16, 21-25, 16-25, 21-25, Game 2 clincher last November 30 at the Arena in San Juan.

The best-of-three finals playbill was the third championship encounter between the two squads. UST won the first two meetings in the two conferences of the tournament’s fourth season.

“San Sebastian has always been a tough opponent ever since. Their key players posed a real threat to us,” coach Cesael de los Santos told the Varsitarian. 

THE UST Tracksters weathered eligibility problems in their off-season roster and finished second and third in the women’s and men’s open-age group divisions, respectively, of the 23rd Colgate-Philippine Amateur Track and Field Association (PATAFA) weekly relay finals last November 22 and 23 at the Rizal Memorial Sports Complex.

SANS ANY intention of bragging, we must say that UST leading the UAAP general championship race has become predictable. UST lords over the field at the end of the first semester and consolidates the race when the second semester sports kick off.

Season 71, though just half-finished, is no different. After the first semester sports, UST piled a commanding 167 points – with five championships consisting of the men’s titles in beach volleyball, taekwondo, table tennis, and swimming, and the women’s title in taekwondo. Thus, UST leads the pack.

But it was no walk in the park as Far Eastern University (FEU) got off to a jack-rabbit start, topping women’s basketball, beach volleyball and table tennis, and men’s chess. It even gained no lower than the top three spots in all the events it joined.

THIS HAS become a recording played and replayed: UST is again poised to win the UAAP general championship.

Halfway into Season 71, the school has garnered 167 points, all but assuring itself of a 36th overall title despite a brief scare from second-running Far Eastern University.

The Tamaraws collected 128 points while De La Salle University, which lost its basketball title to Ateneo de Manila University earlier in the season, gathered 119 points.

“We are very confident to win the overall championship,” Regent Fr. Ermito de Sagon, O.P. of the Institute of Physical Education and Athletics (IPEA) told the Varsitarian. “The teams are doing well and we are on target. So far, we already bagged five team championships. We hope to add three or more in the second semester sports.”

A HEARTBEAT away from barging into the main draw of their first off-season assignment, the UST Growling Tigers looked poised to overwrite a listless UAAP campaign from recent memory.

But the feisty Arellano University Chiefs found a way to remind UST of its Season 71 debacle, posting a 59-69 zonal-round shocker which officially booted the Tigers out of “Sweet 16” contention in the 2008 Philippine Collegiate Champions League last Nov. 6 at the Makati Coliseum.

“Reconstructing the current Tigers to substitute the old ones is still on-going. We are going to join more off season leagues while Dylan Ababou and Khasim Mirza train in the Philippine Basketball League,” assistant coach Beaujing Acot told the Varsitarian.

THE COMEBACKING UST Lady Spikers walloped an out-of-sync Far Eastern University (FEU) Lady Tamaraws, 25-13, 25-17, 25-12 to notch their second straight victory in the fifth season of the Shakey’s V-League last Nov. 11 at The Arena in San Juan.

OPTING to go traditional, the Salinggawi Dance Troupe (SDT) remained in championship hiatus, finishing behind reigning titlist University of the Philippines (UP) Pep Squad for the second straight year in the 2008 UAAP Samsung Cheerdance competition last Sept. 7.

FIFTH place no more.

Learning from past mistakes, the UST Male Woodpushers finally barged into the medal column after being denied a space on the podium the last two years.

Bouyed by a 33.5-point aggregate at the end of the UAAP chess tournament last Sept. 21 at the UST Tan Yan Kee Student Center auditorium, the Male Woodpushers posted a remarkable bridesmaid finish amid a last-game officiating controversy that nearly relegated them to third place in lieu of Adamson University, which filed a protest after repulsing the black-gold-white crew, 1.5-2.5.

Far Eastern University (FEU) ruled the UAAP boards with 36 points while third-placer Adamson finished 0.5 points short of overtaking the second-seeded UST.

Adamson rued an error in judgment by the arbiter, who recognized a draw in favor of UST board 4 bet Jude Fronda despite the San Marcelino-based woodpusher Tristan Soriano’s winning position.

THE UST Male Woodpushers climbed the upper half of the charts after scoring a breezy 3.5-0.5 win over National University (NU) in the ongoing UAAP Chess Tournament last August 30 at the Thomas Aquinas Research Center.

The victory catapulted the Male Woodpushers’ to joint second place with erstwhile league-leaders Far Eastern University. Both teams now sport identical 16.5-point aggregates at the end of the first round.

Board one contender Vic Villanueva outclassed NU’s Donn Fabian in 30 moves while Male Woodpushers Gerald Ferriol (board three) and Jude Fronda (board four) extracted the full point against Gerry Nudalo and Willard Turda, respectively. UST’s Patrick Florendo fell short of completing a sweep following a draw with Christian Cagada.

There are four boards in a match. A win in one board scores a point while a draw grants 0.5.

THE UST Male Tennisters fell short of a back-to-back title romp after wilting before a powerhouse De La Salle University crew, 2-0, in the finals of the 2008 Milo Interschool Tennis Tournament last August 23 at the Phil-am Homes Tennis Club in Quezon City.

Up against a heavy-hitting Korean and one of the Philippines’ top local netters, the Male Tennisters succumbed to pressure at every turn, eventually relinquishing the title they won via an all-UST finale last year.

Season 70 Rookie of the Year Raymond Villarete hastened UST’s championship meltdown, yielding the first singles battle to Korean Soo-han Chung in the tie-breaker, 8-7 (1).

Unable to shake-off a choppy forehand early in the match, Villarete found himself staring at a 1-4 deficit, but later knotted the count at five-apiece, thanks to a couple of nifty placements which repeatedly caught Chung off-balanced at mid-court.