Tag: No. 2

THE BLEEDING has stopped, for now.

Their season greeted by an assortment of woes, the UST Growling Tigers looked headed to follow the same losing script reminiscent of a dismal first-round campaign two years ago. But an unlikely pack of shocktroopers decided to rewrite page 5 and 6 of the Tigers’ dragging UAAP storyline as of late.

With most of its veterans still limping from various injuries, UST threw its rookie guards to the fray and the wounded Tigers pulled off their second and third victories in their fifth and sixth games in the first round.

Three days after essaying a cardiac 86-80 overtime squeaker against the Adamson University Soaring Falcons, the resurgent Tigers prevailed anew, this time devouring the winless National University (NU) Bulldogs, 88-77, last July 31.

“The rookies are now enduring end game pressure, the veterans are getting more into their game and it’s only a week or two before (Japs) Cuan plays again. We are becoming more solid and flexible.” head coach Pido Jarencio told the Varsitarian. “Hindi madali bumawi pero uunti-untiin natin ang hakbang.”

ORPHANED by their chief playmaker for health reasons, the UST Tigresses bowed before a rampaging Far Eastern University (FEU) Lady Tamaraws, 47-80, to absorb their second defeat in five games, last July 27 at the Ateneo Blue Eagle gym.

The Tigresses sorely missed the backcourt presence of Season 70 Mythical Team member Marichu Bacaro, who underwent a tooth extraction a day before the game.

“The rest of the team was shocked when they knew Bacaro could not play,” coach Peque Tan told the Varsitarian. “They were not moving in their usual element.”

HUNGRY for a title in seven years, the UST Tiger Cubs showed what they lacked last season — a big fighting heart.

Although picking up their second consecutive loss, the Tiger Cubs proved they were a tough team to beat, dealing league-leaders Ateneo de Manila Blue Eaglets a near upset, 74-75, last July 26 at the Blue Eagle gym. The loss placed UST (3-2) in a tie for third place with the Far Eastern University (FEU).

DOMINATING the UAAP has become a tradition for UST even without a perfect training venue for its athletes.

With the UST gymnasium hosting several activities like PE classes, cheering practices, and non-athletic events, the main training area becomes a multi-purpose hall of sorts hardly maximized by the athletes themselves.

As a result, some teams had to train off-campus. The fencers had to go to the Philsports Arena, and the badminton players move to the place of their sponsor Hemady Sports Club in Quezon City.

WITH THE groundwork already in place, it’s now just a matter of time before the new home of the perennial UAAP general champions rises at the heart of the UST campus.

The four-story UST Sports Complex, whose groundbreaking was held last July 29, is set to be finished by 2011 in time for the University’s quadricentennial anniversary, said Fr. Roberto Pinto O. P., director of the Facilities Management Office.

THE UNIVERSITY has transferred UST athletes to the GMG Active Dormitory Inc. from the Isabel Building last June 18 to prepare the erstwhile Thomasian players’ residence for renovations.

“We still do not know whether this will be permanent. All we know is that the University has plans for Isabel Building,” said Assistant to the Rector for Student Affairs Cristina Castro-Cabral.

FORMER ace Tiger Jin Tshomlee Go promised one thing in his return trip to the Olympics—no more choking on the big stage.

Booted out early in the first round of his under 58-kilogram medal quest in the 2004 Athens Olympics, Go expects to go head-on with the same opponents he had locked horns with on his way to the Beijing meet in August.

This time, however, Go will no longer be the jittery rookie of four years ago.

HE WAS the Olympic “cop” who used to police the backcourt as a “cool, calculated, and heady” guard for the UST Glowing Goldies of the late 1940s. But more than leading a fearsome crew of hardcourt deadshots that has defined UST’s post-World War II onslaughts in the UAAP, Gabriel “Gabby” Fajardo lent his playmaking brilliance for a greater cause: to serve flag and country in the world’s biggest sporting arena — the Olympics.

NEVER in her wildest dreams did she dream of becoming the first female president of the then Trinity College of Quezon City.

But with her patience, determination, and innovativeness, Dr. Josephine Suerte-Sumaya became the dynamic spirit behind the elevation of the college to university status. Now, she is scaling greater heights as the inaugural president of the Trinity University of Asia.

Up the ladder