Tag: No. 10

THE THIRST for a fresh Universities Athletic Association of the Philippines (UAAP) championship ring was finally quenched for the red-hot UST men’s tennis squad.

For almost a dozen weekends of pound-for-pound tennis action, the 2002 UAAP titlists successfully put a sweet conclusion to their title reclamation last Jan. 23: a 2-0 thrashing of arch-rival De La Salle University (DLSU) at the Yñarez Socio-Cultural Center Shell Tennis Court in Pasig City.

THE CHAMPIONSHIP title once more slipped off the Lady Batters’ gloves after the Adamson Falcons swept the best-of-three title series with an 8-5 win over UST last Feb. 19 at the UST field.

The Lady Batters again tried to play catch-up only to lose steam in the last inning.

Like game one, where the Lady Batters lost, 4-7, UST was down early in the game as its defense failed to hold down Adamson’s hitters. UST trailed, 2-7, after two innings.

UST had another run in the fourth inning, while Adamson registered another in the fifth.

THE CROWN has to wait another year.

The UST Golden Booters suffered a heartbreaking loss in the penalty shootout, 7-8, of the final game against defending champions Ateneo de Manila University (ADMU) Blue Eagle Booters last Feb. 20 at the Ateneo Football Field in Loyola.

“It was not meant for us this year,” said head coach Nonnoy Carpio as his team failed to recapture the crown UST last won in 1999.

UST top scorer Lord Jay Legpitan converted a goal early in the first half to give ADMU an early headache to silence the dominant Ateneo crowd.

HE WAS once dubbed by amateur scribes as the “thunder on the loose.” Until now, tales of his heroic cage exploits still echo all over the land.

UNDEFEATED.

Such was the story of the UST Golden Sox’s title conquest as they finished the eliminations with a rare 10-0 sweep after nipping the University of the Philippines, 8-7,ending a 10-year title drought last Feb. 17 at the Rizal Memorial Diamond.

Trailing, 2-6, after the fifth inning, the Golden Sox went on a scoring binge in the sixth and seventh innings to tie the Maroon Batters at 6-6.

AFTER falling prey to the De La Salle Lady Archers in the UAAP finals, the Lady Spikers finished bridesmaid anew in the Shakey’s V- League second conference.

The Taft-based squad pulverized the hapless UST spikers in straight sets, 25-14, 25-18, 25-23 in their second finals meeting last February 13, to pull off a 2-0 finals sweep.

“The team has nothing to be ashamed of,” said UST coach Augusto Santamaria, who has steered the team to countless victories, including a blazing finals run in the previous V-League conference.

CHAMPIONS at last.

The decade-long title drought is finally over for the Tiger Shuttlecockers after they edged defending champions Far Eastern University Tamaraw Shuttlecockers, 3-2, last Feb. 20 at the Rizal Memorial Badminton Hall. It was the first championship for UST since the sport was introduced in the University Athletics Association of the Philippines (UAAP) in 1995.

DESPITE having two injured players in its lineup, the Tiger Jins were unfazed, and still won their third consecutive UAAP championship last Feb. 2 at the UST gym.

In the Tigers Jins’ first fight against Ateneo de Manila University (ADMU), flyweight Billy Joel Corral fractured his left hand, but bucked the injury to continue playing and winning. Corral later took the tournament’s Rookie of the Year award.

DESTINY just had other plans for the Tiger Judokas, and a championship unfortunately was not a part of them.

Heavily wounded from an opening game setback against the University of the Philippines, the UST Tiger Judokas’ six-year championship run ended after they lost to the Ateneo de Manila University, 3-4, last Feb. 6 at the UP College Human Kinetics Gym.

THE BATTLE for UAAP supremacy has become more arduous for the UST senior squads as there is tougher competition from the other schools which seem bent on removing UST from the UAAP overall throne. But that seems not a problem for the Junior squads which rose above all odds to claim their second overall title for the Pontfical University.