THE BLUE and Lady Eagles ended the final round of the University Athletic Association of the Philippines (UAAP) Season 78 Chess tournament with losses to the University of the East (UE) and the Adamson University (AdU), respectively, on Saturday, March 19 at the Henry Sy Sr. Hall in De La Salle University, Manila. The Ateneo Men’s and Women’s Chess team finished the tournament in seventh and eighth place in the standings, respectively.
Lady Eagles
The lady woodpushers finished their 14th and final round with a 0-4 loss against the AdU Lady Falcons. Throughout the season, the Women’s team struggled to score a sufficient amount of points to win their rounds and had consecutively been placed in the eighth ranking.
According to Women’s Head Coach Michael Gotel and Team Captain Bren Membrere, the reason for these dismal results despite training with great effort was a lack of exposure to competitions as compared to their more experienced opponents.
Lady Eagle Jill Feliciano explained that her squad is still a “growing team,” with a majority of the players still new to competing in large tournaments such as the UAAP. In order to help each other, the team engaged in friendly competition amongst themselves to strengthen their skill and unity.
“We all have that drive to get better for the sake of improving the quality of the team and the quality of the players,” Feliciano said. “We encourage each other, not try to bring each other down, and we help each other improve,” added Lady Eagle Mine Sandoval.
Membrere also garnered the most wins amongst her Ateneo teammates with a total of four. Inspired by her development from her previous tournaments, she stated that this has motivated her to do better next season. “Hopefully, next UAAP, manalo ako ng mas madami kasi I know kaya ko pa (Hopefully, next UAAP, I can win more games because I know I still can),” she said. “I know I can get stronger.”
Blue Eagles
In the last round of the tournament for the Men’s division, Team Captain Jem Garcia was the only one who made a contribution on the scoresheet, as the Blue Eagles lost 1-3 after beating the Red Warriors by the same score in the first round-robin. The difference in performances perfectly contrasted the two halves of the blue woodpushers’ Season 78.
The defeat continued a string of poor results for the Katipunan-based side in the second round-robin; since their draw against AdU in the eighth round, the Blue Eagles recorded six straight defeats. According to Blue Eagle Ricki Yao, this was a huge disappointment because the lineup they had was the strongest the Ateneo had fielded in awhile.
Head Coach Roland Perez also expressed the same frustration on their final standing. “There was a time we could have placed third or fourth,” he lamented. After the first round-robin, the Blue Eagles were at fifth place with a podium position within striking distance. However, their subpar performance in the second round-robin ultimately led them to their seventh-place finish.
Nevertheless, Garcia’s performances in board one–the position where the strongest players usually compete–earned him a silver medal. Meanwhile, Penny Bonifacio, who was strategically ranked in board six at the start of the season, earned him his second straight gold medal for his performances in board four.
The end of the Season 78 chess tournament also concluded the UAAP careers of seniors Jude Que and Garcia, the former positioned at board two.
