The Ateneo Lady Eagles join their male counterparts in the next round of the step-ladder to face archrivals De La Salle University Lady Archers after beating FEU 3-1 in the playoff tie. Earlier in the morning, the Blue Eagles defeated UP 3-1 in their own playoff tie to forge an encounter with the Green Archers.
Bianca Carlos set the tone for Ateneo against Thea Pomar of FEU. Both competitors started evenly in the first game only for Carlos to pull away. Carlos’ errors prevented her from killing the game off early and let Pomar catch up. Eventually, Carlos remained composed and won 21-15. The second game was closer than the first with Pomar able to keep within striking distance of Carlos. Similar to the first game though, Carlos gained the lead and finished off Pomar 21-17.
Cassie Lim maintained ADMU’s momentum with a hard-fought win over Lady Tamaraw Michal Duquilla. The two games had a similar tone to them with Duquilla leading most of the time only for Lim to force a deuce twice in the match. From those moments in the match, Lim eventually won both games and gave Ateneo a 2-0 lead in the tie. The scores for both games were 23-21 and 22-20.
Pomar returned and was partnered up with Hannah Tudtud for FEU to square up against ADMU’s Geva De Vera and Janel Dihiansan. It was a straight games victory for the FEU pair albeit the ADMU duo gave them a good run for their money. Tudtud and Pomar dictated the tempo in the first game, leading at the interval 11-6. From then on, all the Lady Eagles could do was to play catch up but the Lady Tamaraws were able to keep their composure all throughout. FEU won the first game 21-18. In the second game, the Lady Eagles were leading all throughout only for the Lady Tamaraws to equalize at 18-18. The Lady Tamaraws then led 19-18 only for the Lady Eagles to force a deuce. However, the Lady Tamaraws kept their focus and won 22-20. ADMU now led 2-1 in the tie.
Carlos and Lim reappeared and finished the tie off for ADMU, dominating the returning Duquilla and her partner Maridel Rivera from FEU. The first game was all ADMU as Carlos and Lim simply made mince meat of Duquilla and Rivera, winning 21-9. With their team’s season potentially ending, Duquilla and Rivera fought harder in the second game but it was to no avail as Carlos and Lim successfully repelled any potential comeback. The score for the second game was 21-16.
As mentioned at the start, the next ties of the ADMU Badminton Team is against their opposites from archrivals DLSU. The ties for the Blue Eagles and Lady Eagles will be held at the Rizal Memorial Badminton Center on October 10, 2015. The men’s tie will be in the morning at 8:00AM with the ladies following suit at 1:00PM.
