Coming into the season as the three-time defending UAAP Women’s Chess tournament champions, the DLSU Lady Woodpushers wallopped their first four opponents to begin their four-peat campaign with a 4-0 record. Dating back to their recent success in last year’s Unigames, the Lady Woodpushers have been focused on staying consistent both on and off the board, with preparation also playing key to their streak.
“So yung sa preparation na yun, nagaaral [kami] ng mga openings, [at] nagsosolve kami ng puzzles na pwedeng mangyari sa game namin,” shared the Lady Woodpushers’ team captain Jan Fronda before the season began. “Yun yung ginagawa namin at pinapagawa sa amin ng coach namin for the UAAP.”
The Lady Woodpushers beat both the FEU Lady Tamaraws and the AdU Lady Falcons convincingly on opening weekend with 3-1 wins. To follow it up, DLSU easily beat the NU Bulldogs, 3.5-.5, and on the next day they handed the previously-undefeated UST Tigresses a 3-1 loss. They currently sit atop the league with their unblemished slate and they are poised to pick up their fourth straight championship based on the show of force displayed by Fronda together with Cherry Mejia, Judith Pineda and the rest of the squad.
On the other hand, after shocking the defending champion UST Growling Tigers and beating the ADMU Blue Eagles with identical 3-1 victories to open the UAAP Season 76 Men’s Chess tournament, the DLSU Green Woodpushers suffered a 3-1 loss to FEU on the third day of the tourney. UAAP Champions from 2007 up until they were dethroned by UST last season, FEU bounced back from an opening weekend loss to AdU to hand DLSU its first defeat of the season.
The following day though, the Green Woodpushers avenged themselves with a 2.5-1.5 victory over UP. With DLSU’s loss and AdU’s 2-2 tie with UST, NU stands as the lone undefeated squad in the tournament and they seek to win their first championship since 1987. On the other hand, Aglipay Oberio, Jan Galan and the Green Woodpushers aim to reclaim the championship which they have not held since they won their sixth straight UAAP title in 2006.
