The UST Tiger Paddlers finished the elimination round of the UAAP Season 85 men’s table tennis tournament with an unblemished 12-0 record to advance to their sixth-straight finals appearance at the Makati Coliseum on Thursday.
UST swept the Ateneo Blue Eagles, UP Fighting Maroons and FEU Tamaraws.
In singles play, UST team captain Alvin Sevilla dominated Ateneo’s Mahendra Cabrido, 11-9, 11-4, 11-6, before Eljay Tormis outmuscled Wrency Abad, 6-11, 11-8, 11-3, 11-6.
Manny De Leon and Al Sanchez pounded Ateneo’s Zherdel Fresco and Sean Uy in doubles play to complete UST’s first team win, 18-16, 11-7, 12-10.
Tiger Paddler Castro bested UP’s Gabriel Nieva, 10-12, 11-5, 11-5, 11-6, while Eljay Tormis made quick work of Rikki Chuaquico, 11-4, 11-5, 11-6.
Prince Garcia and Sanchez toppled UP’s Earnest Salloman and Paul Tolentino, 7-11, 11-6, 13-11, 11-9, for team win No. 2.
UST completed its elimination-round sweep after the Garcia-De Leon tandem thrashed FEU’s duo of Ram Balanquit and Arvin Morales, 11-4, 11-8, 11-6.
“Lahat naman ng universities ay magagaling this season. We just focus on our goal, which is to defend the UAAP championship title,” UST head coach Jackson Que told the Varsitarian.
In the juniors division, the boys’ team finished with an 8-2 record, sweeping the Ateneo High School and Far Eastern University, before they succumbed to the defending champions De La Salle-Santiago Zobel School, 1-3.
The UST Tiger Paddlers will have a chance at a three-peat as they face the second-seeded Ateneo Blue Eagles in the finals, while their junior counterparts will rematch with DLS-Z in the junior finals at the same venue on Saturday, Nov. 26. Bjorn Del B. Deade
