The longest active winning streak in the UAAP has been broken.
Ateneo de Manila University halted the run of the reigning seven-time UAAP Men’s Badminton champion National University at 60 with a 3-2 victory to end the elimination round on Wednesday at the Centro Atletico Badminton Center.
And it took the heroics of captain Arthur Salvado Jr. to make it happen.
The third-year Blue Eagle denied national doubles standout Julius Villabrille, 22-20, 21-12, in the deciding singles for the squad’s fourth win this season and forced a triple-tie at 4-1.
The win propelled the Blue Eagles to the top spot over the UP Fighting Maroons and the Bulldogs on superior matches won.
“Our mindset going into the tie is that we got nothing to lose and everything to gain. So, it was also my thoughts heading into my match. I was adjusting at first because I’m playing against a doubles specialist, but, fortunately, I got my groove and won it,” Salvado said.
Lyrden Laborte stopped the country’s No. 2 men’s singles player, Mark Velasco, 21-9, 21-14, to set the tone for Ateneo before MJ Perez equalized for NU with a 16-21, 22-20, 21-18 reversal of Lance Vargas in the second singles rubber.
Solomon Padiz Jr. and Villabrille seized the 2-1 lead after taking down Salvado and Vargas at 22-20, 21-19.
Laborte and Charles Bagasbas, though, had other plans and forced the decider, setting up the Salvado heroics with a 19-21, 21-19, 22-20 victory over James Villarante and Perez.
The Blue Eagles will take on the UST Tiger Shuttlers in the Final Four while the Fighting Maroons and the Bulldogs duke it out in the other pairing on Saturday.
The Tiger Shuttlers successfully made the semifinals after taking down the DLSU Green Shuttlers, 3-2, in a team tie that also needed a deciding singles match.
Kyle Basilio pulled off a 21-17, 21-18 denial of Jason Pajarillo to keep the squad in the top four for a second straight season.
“Happy ako sa nilaro ng men’s team, kasi ‘yung mental toughness talaga ‘yung kulang namin. ‘Yun uli ‘yung focus namin especially going into the semifinals,” UST head coach Chona Medina said.
UST took control of the contest with wins in the first two singles matches with team captain Lennox Cuilao and Sean Dela Cruz.
Cuilao made short work of rookie James Capin, 21-9, 21-12, before Dela Cruz went the distance over James Estrada, 21-13, 19-21, 21-12.
The Green Shuttlers, though, would not be swept and eventually forced the decider with victories in the doubles play.
Yuan Tan and Yugin Tan broke through past Janzen Panisales and John Dizon, 21-16, 21-18, before Joshua Morada and Joshua Cuarte completed the reversal over Cuilao and Munir Bartolome, 20-22, 21-17, 21-16, to set up the decider.
On the other hand, UP completed the qualifying round with a dominant 5-0 sweep of Adamson University.
The last two captains of the Fighting Maroons, Wileyto Yray and Michael Clemente, sent their side off to the semifinal round on a rousing note.
They took a tie-clinching win of 21-14, 21-11 over Noel Hernandez Jr. and Gabrielle Ganoy in the first doubles match.
