MULING tinahak ng Season 69 champion UST Male Tennisters ang landas ng tagumpay matapos iuwi ang korona sa men’s division ng 2007 Milo All-Students Tennis Cup bagamat pumangalawa lamang ang kanilang mga babaeng kapanalig sa sarili nitong kampeonato.
Sa paghaharap ng dalawang koponan ng Male Tennisters sa finals, naisahan ng UST Team-A ang UST Team-B, 2-1, upang makuha ang kampeonato noong Agosto 11 sa Philam Life Tennis Club sa Quezon City.
IT DID not have to last another year.
The pain of repeatedly choking in the finals proved too much a nightmare for the UST Tiger Spikers to recall that dislodging their bitter rivals from the top became an undying motivation of sorts for the past five seasons.
With crunch-time lessons beefing up their arsenal, the Tiger Spikers announced their return to the UAAP volleyball summit via an epic five-set conquest of defending champion Far Eastern University, 25-20, 23-25, 25-19, 20-25, 15-11, in Game 3 of their best-of-three finals tussle at The Arena in San Juan last March 2.
Season 70 MVP Reno Roque delivered the haymaker for the España-based spikers, tipping an overhead dropshot past his Morayta-based rivals’ tall blockers for a 14-11 cushion in the make-or-break fifth set before FEU spiker John Peñaranda’s rallying kill sailed wide to formally hand UST the title which it last won in 2002 after sweeping De La Salle University.
“I am very happy about the outcome,” coach Emil Lontoc told the Varsitarian. “It was a group effort. The rookies executed the plays perfectly despite being new to the team.”
True enough, in the opening set, UST appeared to have outgrown its faulty blocking habits back in Game 2, keeping FEU’s frontliners in check while hitting their stride on the offensive end. Veteran enforcer Jerome Say then uncorked a running spike from the deep left crack of UST’s attack zone to take an early 1-0 set advantage.
But FEU rode on mainstay Edjet Mabbayad’s attacking prowess in the second frame to even the count at one-set apiece.
Mabbayad, who took Best Spiker and Best Scorer honors, tried to carry his act in the third set but with little success as the blocking trio of John Torres, Raykarl Dimaculangan and Charles Reyes ganged up on the FEU stalwart atop the net, repeatedly frustrating the latter’s aerial onslaughts.
Capitalizing on FEU’s brittle defense, Torres effortlessly imposed himself upfront with visibly unchallenged kills to help UST shatter a 17-17 deadlock and seize the upperhand anew via a 2-1 set lead.
The Tamaraws, however refused to go down quietly, mounting a solid comeback behind the exploits of Mabbayad, Jerry Mabutol and Joshua Alcarde to arrange a winner-take-all fifth set which the Tiger Spikers eventually won.
Torres and Hanry Pecaña combined for 42 points to lead all UST scorers in double-figures.
Newcomer Jayson Ramos took the Rookie of the Year honors while Dimaculangan and Reyes received the Best Server and Best Libero awards respectively. In the women’s side, Mary Jean Balse was named Best Spiker.
Minor glitch
After a promising Game 1 victory, the Tiger Spikers looked headed to broom the series en route to the title. But FEU had other things in mind.
The three-peat champions hardly displayed signs of panic, forcefully yet calmly avenging its opening-game setback to UST with a 26-28, 25-17, 23-25, 17-25 victory last February 27.
Staring at a 12-20 first-set deficit, the Tigers unleashed a miraculous 13-point run courtesy of Say, Torres, Roque, and James Pecaña. But the Tamaraws hanged on tenaciously, engaging UST in a nip-and-tuck affair, the last at 26-all, before claiming the set on a return error by Roque. FEU then annexed two more sets to wrap up the match.
“They suddenly lost focus in the middle of the match,” Lontoc said. “They did good in the first set, managing to catch up but I don’t know why they suddenly lost concentration in the latter parts of the game.”
Hardly cringing from FEU’s intimidating brand of play, UST kicked off its championship drive on a high note, via a 25-19, 16-25, 29-27, 25-19,victory in Game 1 last February 24.
“Before, we could not attack well because the players were intimidated by the opposition’s blockers,” said Lontoc. “The one-week training we underwent was enough to fix our weak spots,” he added, saying that winning against Adamson was also vital in boosting his wards’ confidence.
Lontoc assured that a successful defense of the crown won’t be far off even with Say and another Tiger Spiker Glenn Artajos gone next season, “Promising ‘yung mga rookies,” he said. “Malakas ang line-up naming next year kaya mukhang malakas ang posibilidad na mag-champion ulit.”
