UAAP: Lady Woodpushers end first round on top; Green Woodpushers climb to second

At the end of the first round, the DLSU Lady Woodpushers have emerged as the frontrunner in this season’s UAAP Women’s Chess tournament after consistently winning one game after another.

The DLSU Green Woodpushers, on the other hand, have slowly crept up to second place after seven grueling games and could potentially overtake the league-leading AdU Soaring Falcons in the second round.

In their lone match last weekend, the Lady Woodpushers dominated UP 4-0, while the Green Woodpushers outlasted UST 3.5-0.5 to remain in prime position to win their first championship in more than 10 years heading into the halfway points of the season.

“Sa akin, actually half-happy lang ako kasi half palang ng tournament, hindi pa talaga tapos,” Green Woodpushers and Lady Woodpushers head coach Randy Segarra says when asked about how he feels about the current standing of both teams. “Maganda yung pinakita nila. Medyo mas aggressive ngayon. Sa crunch time, [sa] mga crucial moments talagang they excelled.”

After losing their first match to FEU, the Lady Woodpushers won their next five matches by at least a point to take the mid season lead at 22 points. Despite ending the first round undefeated, FEU remains behind DLSU with 21.5 points. NU is at third with 15.5 points and UP is fourth with 14 points, while UST, Adamson, Ateneo, and UE have 11,10.5, 9.5, and 8 points respectively.

The Green Woodpushers on the other hand, have outclassed their opponents by an average of two points after surrendering a draw and a loss in two of their first three matches. They remain behind the only team that beat them this season, Adamson, who have managed to finish with 18.5 points. DLSU also finished the first round with 18.5 points but remains at second while UST and NU are third and fourth with 17 and 16.5 points respectively. FEU, Ateneo, UP, and UE round out the competition with 15, 12, 8, and 6.5 points respectively.

“Actually, yung kailangan iworkout lang namin [ay] yung preparations and at the same time yung mental toughness namin sa game and kumbaga yung focus namin,” Coach Segarra says when asked about what he hopes to work on with his teams, adding that blocking out distractions and having faith in one another will help them win crucial games similar to the ones they won over the weekend.

With the second round coming up in less than a week, Coach Segarra admits that the work is far from done. Aside from having to face each school once again, the multi-titled mentor is looking to use the second round to correct their mistakes in the previous round and pull out all the stops to ensure that the Lady Woodpushers clinch their unprecedented five-peat and give the Green Woodpushers their first championship since 2004.

“I mean we have to beat everybody at least kumbaga [get the] maximum number of points [at] hindi talaga kami [maging] kumpyansa na magbigay talaga ng points,” he explains. “Hopefully we [can] bounce back dun sa mga earlier losses namin nung first half.”

The Green Woodpushers and the Lady Woodpushers will begin the second round this Saturday, February 14 at 1pm, in the 4th Floor Multipurpose Room of the Henry Sy Sr. Hall.