ATENEO TAEKWONDO failed to take home a single team-tie victory on the third day of the University Athletic Association of the Philippines (UAAP) Season 82 Taekwondo Championships on Wednesday, October 17, at the Blue Eagle Gym, Quezon City.
The Lady Eagles dropped to 0-4 in the tournament after back-to-back heartbreakers against the University of the Philippines (UP) Lady Maroons and the De La Salle University (DLSU) Lady Archers. Meanwhile, in their lone match of the day against the University of Santo Tomas (UST) Growling Tigers, the Blue Eagles also failed to notch a win. After the loss, the Ateneo Men’s Taekwondo Team fell to a 1-4 slate in the tournament.
Lady Eagles showed promise, but remain winless
The Lady Eagles started off the day with a series against the Lady Maroons, which they narrowly lost, 3-4. UP won the first two matches with ease as Alexa Rabino and Elaine Peralta fell into early deficits that they couldn’t recover from. Next to the mats for the Blue and White was Julienne Bermejo, who delivered the team’s first match victory of the tournament after coming from behind in thrilling fashion, 34-33.
Ateneo had an opportunity to level the team-tie in the fourth match, but Winslet Rosel struggled to put up points on the board against her Lady Maroon counterpart, subsequently falling 2-10.
With the team facing a 1-3 hole, the Blue and White rattled off back-to-back triumphs, starting with Jenevive De Asis, who kept the Lady Jins alive after pulling out a win in a low-scoring contest, 7-1. Danielle Morales was next for Ateneo, who started out strong as she built a 6-0 lead heading into the break. Despite a furious rally from her opponent, Morales still came out on top, 12-9, and forced a winner-take-all seventh match.
The Blue and White’s first team-tie win rested on the shoulders of Mika Tan, but she could not come up with the victory. It was a one-sided match from the beginning, with Tan getting shut-out in the first round, 0-10, before ultimately dropping the clincher, 1-21.
The Lady Eagles then lost another hotly-contested team-tie, 3-4, against archrivals DLSU, falling to 0-4 in the campaign.
Rabino took the mat first for the Lady Eagles and drew first blood for Ateneo, 9-5. But in the second match, Peralta could not keep the momentum going, as she fell, 5-15, to even up the team-tie at one apiece. The Lady Archers then took the team-tie lead, 1-2, in the third match, as Bermejo could not get going against her DLSU counterpart. Rosel, meanwhile, avenged her earlier defeat after a rousing 20-12 comeback victory to even the team-tie once again, 2-2.
In the pivotal fifth match, De Asis raced to an early 8-1 lead, but settled for a 10-9 advantage at the break. The Lady Eagle came out aggressive in the second round to win, 20-12, and take the team-tie lead, 3-2.
Morales took the mat for the sixth match, and it was a slugfest. Ateneo was on track for a team-tie victory, as Morales landed a late kick to take a precarious 4-2 lead. Following a brief challenge, Morales struggled to defend herself from a flurry of kicks en route to a narrow 4-6 defeat to force the decisive match. In the seventh match, La Salle took control, as Tan could not break through the DLSU defense, falling decisively to the tune of a 1-23 scoreline.
Blue Eagles woes continue, drop to 1-3
Day 3 of the UAAP Taekwondo Tournament yielded a tough 1-6 team-tie loss for the Blue Eagles against the Growling Tigers. Opening the day for the Blue and White was Joebert Padilla, who fell by a narrow 13-14 deficit to his UST counterpart. The Blue Eagles then dropped their second match of the day, due to the absence of a player in the lineup.
Trailing 0-2 in the team-tie, the Blue Jin next fielded in Harley Santos, who gave Ateneo its first and only match win of the day. Santos bested his opponent with a score of 5-4 after two rounds. Ateneo’s third loss of the day came at the expense of Paul Cham, as he was defeated in a nail-biter of a match. Cham finished the regulation two rounds with a tie against his opponent, eventually falling in the sudden-death round.
Leonel Garcia and Rafael Cosca continued the day in the Blue Eagles’ next two matches. UST increased its lead in the team-tie to 5-1 after both Garcia and Cosca dropped their matches, with scores of 5-15 and 3-26, respectively.
Finishing the day for Ateneo was Miguel Garcia III. Despite a late rally in the second round, Garcia succumbed in a tightly-knit contest, losing 21-23 to ice UST’s 6-1 team tie victory.
The next set of matches for the Blue and Lady Eagles will be on Friday, October 18, at the Blue Eagle Gym, Quezon City.
