Tag: Vol. LXXX

THE UST Paddlers highlighted their off-season build-up with medal-clinching feats in the 11th Donic-Star Sports University of the Philippines (UP) Chancellor’s Cup National Invitational Table Tennis Tournament last March 31 to April 4 at the UP College of Human Kinetics (CHK) gym in Starmall Alabang.

UST reaped two golds and a bronze in the tournament.

Lady Paddler Cassandra Bazar teamed up with Tiger Paddlers assistant coach Julius Esposo to rule the mixed doubles event via a 3-0 shellacking of teammate Chrisma Capistrano and UST Junior Paddlers head coach Celjun Ortalla.

“I think chemistry brought us to the championship because being comfortable with your partner is a crucial factor,” said Bazar, a former Palarong Pambansa gold medalist. “Both Chrisma (Capistrano) and I didn’t have enough practice prior to the match. Maybe I was also lucky since coach Julius gave me a big boost.”

NAGA CITY – The rookie-laden UST Tigresses may have hurdled the bumpy elimination-round challenge of a gutsy Calabarzon (Region IV-A) squad but not the roadblock posed by the dreaded quotient system as the defending champions bowed out of title contention in the 2009 Prisaa women’s basketball tournament at the University of Nueva Caceres gym last April 24.

Despite waylaying the Region IV-A lasses, 69-62, for a 3-1 win-loss card, the Tigresses – who played minus most of their mainstays – still found themselves at the tail-end of a three-team log-jam after only amassing .968 quotient points against the 1.059 and .972 norms of bracket topnotcher Bacolod-Western Visayas (Region 6) and Calabarzon, respectively.

AIMING for a semi-finals berth in their Nike Summer League (NSL) campaign, the UST Tiger Cubs coasted past Don Bosco Technical College (Don Bosco), 51-36, in their face-off last April 30 at the Far Eastern University (FEU) gym.

The win catapulted the Tiger Cubs on top of Group B in the juniors’ division with a 2-1 win-loss record.

“It was a light game for us. The team’s performance was okay but I’m not yet satisfied. There’s still a lot to improve especially in their sense of maturity,” coach Allan Ascue told the Varsitarian.

COUNT these Thomasian athletes into Season 71 immortality.

Led by nine Most Valuable Players (MVP)s, the UST contingent not only flaunted its dominance in the overall medal race but also paraded a fine crop individual talents who steered the Pontifical University to its 36th general championship.

THE UST Male Shuttlers’ season-ending 6-1 win-loss record may have betrayed their title aspirations.

But the performance was enough to catapult the Male Shuttlers to bridesmaid honors this season, an upgrade from last year’s fourth-place finish.

THE UAAP general championship stays on the Tigers’ lair.

For 11 straight years, UST remains as the school to beat in the country’s premier collegiate sporting arena as it captured its 36th UAAP overall title since co-founding the league in 1938.

17-0.

This, beyond words, aptly epitomized volleyball supremacy in the UAAP today. And the UST Tiger Spikers could not agree less.

Needing just another win to complete their title encore, the defending champion Tiger Spikers made sure Game 2 of their best-of-three finals tussle with the University of the Philippines (UP) would be the fitting highlight of their flawless Season 71 campaign as they ripped the Maroons apart, 25-22, 25-14, 25-17 last March 4 at The Arena in San Juan.

“We expected to win the championships after sizing-up UP who never won any set in our previous games against them. We were not threatened at all,” coach Emil Lontoc told the Varsitarian.

True enough, the Tiger Spikers, despite falling behind, 7-12, early in the first set, hardly showed signs of panic, and instead banked on the combined efforts of John Torres, Henry Pecaña and Jayson Ramos to rally UST back in the game, 19-all. Ramos then fueled the Tiger Spikers’ comeback with a blizzard of quick kills to hand UST a 1-0 set advantage.

CHAMPIONS at last.

The UST Lady Booters completed a scintillating upset of twice-to-beat De La Salle University via a 4-1 shootout last March 3 at the Ateneo Erenchun field to finally clinch their first UAAP title since the inception of women’s football in the league 14 years ago.

“They wanted to win, so they set out to do just that,” said coach Rozano Estrabon, whose mentoring debut with the Lady Booters came this season.

And that’s not just talk.

IF THEIR 4-2 win-loss record at the end of the first round is any indication, the UST Lady Shuttlers are likely to annex their second straight UAAP badminton title this season.

But looking beyond the numbers, coach Noli Cajafe begs to disagree.

PROVING their championship run last season was no fluke, the UST Male Fencers stamped their authority on the piste anew to claim their second straight UAAP title last Feb. 14 at the Ateneo Blue Eagle gym.

“Maybe it was the confidence from winning last year. This is the prize for all the trust, time and efforts we exerted in our training,” epee coach Armando Bernal told the Varsitarian