Entering the courts after suffering from their near dominating defeat last Sunday, the UST shuttlers were able to redeem themselves after a massive show of force that brought down their FEU counterparts to a 4-1 victory on Wednesday, at the Rizal Memorial Badminton Hall.
UST was quick to start as Alcaed Sabanal pounced on the initial lead in the first set against FEU’s Estarco Bacalsol, Sabanal never looked back after gaining the upper hand as he continued to swiftly end the set 21-12 in favor of UST. Despite a similar early lead by Sabanal in the second set, a counterattack from Bacalsol denied UST with quick rally to even out the odds to win the set in a close 19-21 score. Already suffered a defeat, Sabanal went back on the offensive as he immediately attacked volley after volley, resulting in a 21-7 set to give UST its first match win of the day.
The Golden Shuttlers continued their fiery streak when Paul John Pantig bagged the first set of the match 21-13. His luck, however, seemed to have quickly run out, as FEU’s John Mark Maque engaged his beast-like ferocity to quickly mount an effective counterattack to stun Pantig in the second set. Immediately switching to the offensive, Maque unleashed an assault that won the set 15-21, for FEU. His reign of terror over Pantig would continue all the way into the third, ultimately destroying the Golden Shuttler’s defense one last time to take the set and the match for FEU, 10-21.
Having the momentum switch to FEU’s side after their win, the FEU doubles team looked to have gained a new burst in morale upon entering the courts to do battle. Sadly for the duo teams of FEU, they experienced a serious squashing at the hands of their UST counterparts.
This was first seen in the massively one-sided match between UST’s John Mark Sotea and Kristian Paolo Barrios who dominated FEU’s Vince Lagnada and John Sy. The Tamaraws underwent a massive first-set beating that ended 21-9, for UST. The Lagnada-Sy duo, however, managed to improve on their defense, but this itself did not progress their standing as they still fell 21-16 to give UST its second match win.
The second doubles match ended in similar fashion in the first set, as the FEU duo of John Mark Maque and Rafael Dionisio faced a resurgent John Paul Pantig along with his partner, John Edgar Reyes, who did not allow himself to fall once again to the same opposition. The UST duo was able to finish the match after a severe beatdown against their FEU counterparts that ultimately resulted in a 21-7, 21-14 match to give UST the tie.
UST did not stop there as Henrick Peralta would also bag the final match for UST after routing FEU’s Rafael Dionisio in two sets. Peralta would retain dominance in both sets that ended 21-18 and 21-17 to add another match victory for the Gold & White.
