THE ATENEO Men’s Badminton team emerged victorious after a five-match thriller to knock out De La Salle University (DLSU) in the University Athletic Association of the Philippines (UAAP) Season 80 Badminton tournament at a 3-2 outcome on Saturday, October 7 at the Rizal Memorial Sports Complex in Manila.

The Blue Eagles take the last slot in the Final Four with a 4-3 win-loss record, advancing to set up a showdown with the University of Santo Tomas (UST) Growling Tigers in the stepladder.

First on the court to start the match was Season 79 Rookie of the Year Keoni Asuncion, who faced Cayel Pajarillo for the first men’s singles match. Asuncion dictated the game, outclassing and pressuring Pajarillo to commit several errors in the first set. Despite Pajarillo’s returns, the Blue Eagle ultimately ended the starting set with a direct hit on his adversary to win at 21-16. Asuncion dominated the action with more aggressive smashes in the second set that ended the game, 21-11.

Team captain Carlo Remo was deployed for the second men’s single duel against Glenn Camillo. The Blue Eagle and Green Archer were neck and neck, getting a feel of each other’s patterns for most of the first set. It came to a point where the loser was the one who made the most errors, and Camillo eventually pulled away to win the set after an overhit from Remo, 17-21. The second set featured the same back to back action, and almost the same results. In the end, Camillo completed more attacks and finished the game with a smash, 18-21, to deadlock the team-tie (1-1).

Hoping to recover the lead, the Blue and White sent out Clarence Filart and rookie Gibby Paña for the first men’s doubles to square off against Pajarillo and Jerick Obaob. Team chemistry was the deciding factor of the game and the Ateneo duo failed to return enough of DLSU’s better orchestrated advances. The first set was given to DLSU following a smash that landed behind the line, 16-21. The Blue Eagles committed more unforced errors while being bombarded with Green Archer volleys and ended up falling to their more confident opponents, 10-21.

Two spare them from elimination, the Blue Eagles put their faith on Asuncion and Remo who battled Prince Monterubio and Michael Saragena for the second men’s doubles. Plenty of heated rallies characterized the game, and the two pairs went back and forth to the race for the lead. Pulling away to victory, the Blue Eagle duo grabbed the first set after an Asuncion smash, 21-18. The second and third sets saw another close battle between the two teams, and DLSU claimed the second after pushing their lead in the end, 21-19. With exhaustion setting in, the third set was a tight match till the end, 20-19. Asuncion won the decisive tug of war after hitting the shuttlecock behind the back line, 21-19.

With the match on the line, all eyes were on the battle of Filart versus Andrew Pineda to decide the third men’s singles and the resulting semifinals set up. The first set commenced with Pineda going all out to overwhelm Filart, forcing multiple errors from the Blue Eagle. DLSU won the first set after Filart hit the net, 14-21.

However, Filart’s game completely changed in the second set when he caught fire in consecutive successful attacks. This time, it was Pineda who was scrambling for an answer, but the Green Archer ultimately fell to a Filart smash, 21-15.

The third and ultimate set began with a small DLSU lead, 5-8. Taking things one at a time, Filart was able to tie the set later on, 15-15. After a couple of worn out returns and attacks on both sides, Filart began to pull ahead, 19-17. With victory a step away, the Blue Eagle outplayed the Green Archer with a cross court hit to win the match following an epic rally, 21-17.

Today’s Blue Eagle triumph is a big morale boost for the Blue shuttlers. “I don’t think that we are far off from the other teams [in the top four],” expressed Filart when asked about going to the semifinals. “NU might be an all-star team, but the others, we’re at par [with them], so it’s just a matter of who wants it more [and] who can play the best game they [can] play. It’s not that they’re better, [but] it’s more on who wants to go further.

The Blue Eagles will be facing off against UST in the first round of the knockout stepladder semifinals on Sunday, October 8, at the Rizal Memorial Sports Complex in Manila.

Match Score

Ateneo 3 DLSU 2

Set Scores

First Men’s Singles (Asuncion vs. Pajarillo): 21-16, 21-11

Second Men’s Singles (Remo vs. Camillo): 17-21, 19-21

First Men’s Doubles: (Filart and Paña vs. Pajarillo and Obaob): 16-21, 10-21

Second Men’s Doubles: (Asuncion and Remo vs. Monterubio and Saragena):  21-18, 19-21, 21-19

Third Men’s Singles: (Filart vs. Pineda): 14-21, 21-15, 21-17