The DLSU Green and Lady Tennisters suffered yet more defeats in their scheduled matchups last March 9 and 10 at the Rizal Memorial Tennis Center. After their respective pair of games over the weekend, the Men’s team had the most losses in the tournament as they held a 1-9 record after getting trounced by the AdU Soaring Falcons and ADMU Blue Eagles. The Women’s team fared no better as they sat at the bottom of the standings with a 1-6 record, tallying losses against the ADMU Blue Eagles and UST Golden Tigresses.
Falling short
The Green and Lady Tennisters entered their Saturday matchups holding the second-to-the-last seeds in their respective divisions. Both of the La Salle teams were scheduled to face two winless squads—the Soaring Falcons for Men’s and the Blue Eagles for Women’s.
From the first service, the Green-and-White immediately dropped the first two matches of the day. AdU’s Miecoz Candelasa came out firing against DLSU’s Nonoy Po, 4-6, 2-6, while Reymoses Amba and Tristan Correos followed this up by earning another victory for the Soaring Falcons against the Taft-based duo of Leyton Portin and RJ Virrey, 5-7, 4-6. With AdU holding the team-tie score lead of 2-0, La Salle had to go for three-straight match victories to come up with their second win of the season. With this, Green Tennisters EJ Geluz, 6-3, 6-3, and the pair of Brysl Libao-Enzo Enriquez, 6-4, 6-1, held it down for DLSU during their respective outings against Falcons Ramon Bentillo and the Lawrence Sombreo-Jerald delos Santos duo. These showcases of resilience put the game up for either team to take. However, Ohye Tortal could not pull the final victory for La Salle after being outperformed by Nikko Lumahang, 5-7, 1-6, who ultimately gave Adamson their first win of Season 86, 2-3.
The Lady Tennisters, on the other hand, were also handed a loss. It was Annika Diwa who clinched the first match for DLSU in two dominant sets that included a bagel, 6-0, 6-2. Despite this, the Blue Eagles quickly overtook La Salle for the team-tie lead. This came after Jed Aquino and Bea Gomez lost in three sets to Yam Garsim and Althea Martirez, 3-6, 6-4, 5-7, then Jam Madis was on the receiving end of the second bagel of the game against Melanie Faye Dizon 0-6, 1-6. However, the Lady Tennisters duo of Arianne Nillasca and Amor Idjao displayed dominance, completing a rare golden set against Blue Eagles Elle Urgello and Nina Sandejas 6-0, 6-0. The second doubles results allowed La Salle to tally their second season victory with one last-match win. With that, Maikee Vicencio and Althea Ong went head-to-head for the most crucial bout of the day. However, despite going to three sets, the game was ADMU’s to take as the former was outlasted by the latter down the stretch 6-7, 6-1, 2-6. The hard-fought match ended in a close 2-3 defeat for DLSU, leading to Ateneo’s first victory.
Struggles against contenders
The next day garnered even more subpar results from the Green and Lady Tennisters. Both teams faced great challenges as they suited up against the top two seeds from both divisions–the Golden Tigresses for Women’s and the Blue Eagles for Men’s.
The Lady Tennisters could only steal one team-tie score from UST in a 1-4 loss. In three out of the five matches played, Golden Tigresses Patricia Lim, Kaye Emana, and Alexie Santos all displayed dominance as they each collected a bagel across the three singles games against DLSU’s Eliana Misa 0-6, 3-6, Madis 3-6, 0-6, and Gomez 2-6, 0-6, respectively. The Taft-based pair of Idjao and Diwa also struggled against UST’s Princess Gom-Os and Miles Vitaliano in three sets 6-4, 2-6, 2-6. Only Aquino and Nillasca could get a point for La Salle, winning over the España-based duo of Justine Maneja and Kryshana Brazal 6-2, 7-5. Despite their efforts, DLSU proved no match for the Final Four-bound Golden Tigresses, which only lost a single six-game loss.
For the Men’s Division, it was a devastating defeat for the Green Tennisters against Ateneo as all matches played ended with a Katipunan-based squad victory, 0-5. DLSU’s Dan Mates 1-6, 1-6, Raven Hitosis 1-6, 1-6, and Po 2-6, 1-6 all failed to surpass three points in their sets played against Noy Seno, JD Velez, and Austin delos Santos, respectively. The pair of Libao and Virrey also succumbed to Blue Eagles Nio Tia and Axl Gonzaga, 1-6 and 4-6. Consequently, the Taft-based duo of Geluz and Portin almost returned with the win against ADMU’s JJ Llavore and Stef Gurria. However, the Green-and-White were ultimately outmatched, 5-7, 7-5 and 3-6.
It was a rough weekend for the Green and Lady Tennisters–a reflection of their season woes. Both teams share one victory apiece and have the league-worst records in their respective divisions. The only way for both squads is up from here as they hope to return to championship form and replicate past successes, holding the second-most combined first-place finishes since the Tennis Tournament was established in 1949. It has been 12 years since the Green Tennisters brought the crown to Taft, which came during Season 74. As for the Lady Tennisters, it has been 11 years since their last championship, which was in Season 75.
