In the battle of veterans and powerhouse badminton names in the UAAP Season 75 Women’s Badminton Championship opening day, the DLSU rookie pair of Aires Amor Montilla and Kristelle Dawn Salatan shined the most.
Going up against UE veteran Kimverly Gatpolintan and Diane Castro, Montilla and Salatan displayed class and composure to score a 21-11, 21-16 upset in the first doubles match-up to officially notch the Lady Shuttlers’ win in the season.
The rookie doubles pair out of Trace College capitalized on Castro’s consecutive miscues to put the second set scoreboard, 18-15. The Montilla-Salatan duo, however, struggled in the first half of the set with attacking errors before an 8-2 midway run to finally pull the victory.
Proving their familiarity with each another, Montilla and Salatan played an offensive type game early on the first set to rack up points, 12-4.
Blanking the defending champions
Last season, UE overcame the Lady Shuttlers’s twice to beat advantage in the semifinals to win it all.
Now playing without former MVP’s in their respective teams, a much-improved Lady Shuttlers roster blanked the UE Lady Warriors, 5-0, last August 11 at the Rizal Memorial Badminton Hall.
“Actually kahit ako na-amazed dahil syempre dahil alam ko na ngayon na gustong gusto talaga nila manalo. As in alam nila na noon hindi lang sila naging consistent siguro last year kaya ganun (Actually, even I was amazed because I knew that they really wanted to win. They knew before that they were not consistent.),” Head Coach Owen Lopez shared.
The Lady Shuttlers loss season 72 MVP Descka Calimlim while the Red-and-White squad played without last year’s top shuttler Fatima Cruz.
The Lady Shuttlers relied on the three Danicas: San Ignacio, Bolos and Peligrino who filled the singles positions with Team Captain Gelli Ramos and the rookie pair of Montilla-Salatan for the doubles play.
San Ignacio bucked a slow start, surrendering the first set 18-21, before wearing out UE’s May Pamorada, 21-12 and 21-11 in the opening singles.
Bolos continued the Lady Shuttlers’ domination, scoring identical 21-17 victories against last season Most Improved Player Rochelle Andres.
Montilla-Salatan did their work before Bolos returned with Ramos to dispatch a hardfighting Pamorada-Andres tandem, 22-20, 15-21, 21-18 in the second doubles.
Coach Lopez shared, “Siguro yung iba kong players kailangan kong palaruin para at least maexperience nila [playing in UAAP]. (I guess I have to let my other players play so they could experience playing in the UAAP.)”
The Lady Shuttlers played against 7th seed Adamson University 1 pm earlier today at the RMSC Badminton Hall.
