THE UNIVERSITY of the East Red Warriors clinched their first UAAP men’s lawn tennis title with a sweep of the UST Male Tennisters, 3-1, in Game 2 of their best-of-three finals series this Season 79 at the Rizal Memorial Stadium Wednesday.
UST’s Bernlou Bering and En-En Lopez had the chance to extend the day into a fifth match by leading 5-0 in the third set. But Red Warriors Paulo Baran and Jeric delos Santos won the next seven games for a 7-6, 2-6, 7-5 comeback win.
Bering and Lopez needed just one game to push UST into a 2-2 tie with UE but committed crucial errors en route to the colossal collapse.
“Siguro hindi talaga samin [ang championship], pero they really deserved it,” UST head coach Alezander Diego told the Varsitarian.
Most Valuable Player AJ Lim capped his impressive rookie season by outclassing UST’s Francis Suazo, 6-0, 6-0, while the Red Warrior duo of Rogelio Estaño, Jr. and Rolly Saga upset the star duo of JC Cabusas and Clarence Cabahug, 5-7, 6-4, 7-5.
Dave Mosqueda gave the Male Tennisters’ lone win of the day with a hard-ought 6-4, 5-7, 6-3 victory over Rodolfo Barquin.
Despite the loss, it was a sterling turnaround of a season for the Male Tennisters who finished fifth last season and Diego plans to get back to the drawing board immediately to fulfill their mission next year.
“Kung ano ‘yung kulang namin this season, gagawin namin ‘yung kailangan para makuha ‘yung championship [next season],” Diego said. “Almost intact pa rin ang team, kailangan namin magpractice sa lahat pa.”
