Another season of the UAAP Lawn Tennis tournament has come to an end for the De La Salle University Lady Tennisters as they played their last game for the elimination round against University of the Philippines, 4-1, Wednesday at the Rizal Memorial Tennis Center.
It was not a great start for the Taft-based squad as Ana Atangan succumbed to UP’s Charmaine Valdez in the first singles match, 4-6, 1-6. Although Atangan caught the first points of the set with powerful shots, she eventually fell to Valdez quick hits and with her own errors.
But DLSU dusted themselves off and took all the succeeding matches, starting with the second doubles match player, Marinel Rudas. Joanna Pena of UP was no match for the star player of Lasalle as Rudas swept clean Pena with a score of 6-1, 6-1.
The Castillo – Arandia tandem also won their match against the duo of Monika Banez and Moira Velicaria, 6-4, 6-4. The match had took quite a while as both pairs surrendered points, and tied up a lot for both sets. However, it was when Banez and Velicaria took too many errors and miscommunicated during the last few points that the Lasallian tandem took their win.
For the last two matches, UP tried to strengthen their game. For the second doubles, the Santos – Uy tandem of UP furnished a tight game against the DLSU’s Jenni Dizon and Khyshana Hitosis, 2-6, 6(5)-7. In the first set, Dizon and Hitosis did not show any struggle at all with communication and managed to win without much errors. However, during the second set, the Iskas challenged their attacks and replied with hard hits tying the score to 6. This time, miscommunication came from Santos and Uy, making them lose points and drop the match.
Same as their second doubles, Jed Aquino of La Salle also played a great fight against the Diliman-based Monica Cortez, 7-5, 6-3. Aquino’s hits were not as quick as Cortez’s were, which made her trail behind for quite a while, but somehow she found composure and took the first set. Then, after Cortez’s errors streak in the second set, Aquino took advantage and win the last game for DLSU.
After their elimination games, it was like déjà vu for the DLSU Lady Tennisters as they warm their stand yet again at third place, ending their campaign for the season.
