The Ateneo Blue and Lady Netters lost last December 6 to 14 against stronger competition in the second Jollibee-Ateneo Invitational Team Tennis Championships.
Ateneo fielded in two separate teams, Team A being Team Jollibee-Ateneo and Team B being Team Ateneo, with each team consisting of eight members. This became a rare opportunity for a merger, the only tournament that brings together the men’s and women’s teams together for one event.
Despite showing much improvement from last year’s Invitational Championships held in Colegio de San Agustin, both teams from Loyola came up short.
The event, held in the Ateneo College Tennis Courts, consisted of five events per match, one singles and one doubles match each for the men’s and women’s, and a mixed doubles event.
Despite defeat
The much-anticipated match-up between archrivals Ateneo and De La Salle University (DLSU) turned out to be a runaway win for the DLSU squad, who had the Philippine Men’s top-ranked PJ Tierro in the tournament. They matched up in the first round with Team Ateneo bowing out of the competition with a 5-0 defeat.
Louie Macalino (I BS CTM), a member of Team Ateneo, said that the tournament benefited them despite the loss. “It [the tournament] was just a friendly match and our main goal was to know our opponents,” he said.
“Despite the defeat, I think this tournament did us a lot of good because not only were we able to generate funds for the whole team, we got to know what we should work on for [the] UAAP (University Athletic Association of the Philippines) come January.”
Men and women
Team Jollibee-Ateneo finished a notable third in the competition. While the women from both Team Ateneo and Team Jollibee-Ateneo were winning their matches, the men struggled to find their rhythm.
“It was just a repeat of how we’ve been doing this year with the girls always winning and the guys, winning some and almost winning some,” said Ayo Canlas (II BS ME), Blue Netter Team Captain and Team Jollibee-Ateneo Member.
Their team was an event short of reaching the finals, being beaten by the same DLSU team that crushed Team Ateneo in the early rounds, with a final score of 3-2. Nevertheless, Team Jollibee-Ateneo was officially awarded the bronze after defeating UP in the battle-for-third by default.
Almost victories
DLSU would later on be outserved in the finals against their sister school College of St. Benilde (CSB), who had the most dominant women’s players in the whole tournament. After losing the first three matches, DLSU conceded to their Taft counterparts, and the CSB squad was awarded with the gold.
“I hope the men’s team can surmount our ‘almost victories’ and actually turn them into ‘real victories.’ And for the women’s team, they just have to continue their winning ways in the UAAP and it’ll be a good end of the year,” Canlas said.
