Tigresses thump Lady Tams, clinch UAAP taekwondo title

MANILA, Philippines - University of Santo Tomas essayed a 5-2 win over Far Eastern U to wrest the title from the sweep-seeking Lady Tams in the UAAP Season 73 women’s taekwondo tournament at The Arena in San Juan over the weekend.

The Tigresses actually finished the round-robin elims tied with defending champ FEU and La Salle at 4-1. But the España-based lady jins were declared champions after emerging on top in the tiebreak.

Commissioner Igor Mella and coaches of the six teams conferred for more than two hours to determine how to break the rare three-way logjam. UST and FEU still ended up tied after the computation of the number of individual wins (25 each) and so the UAAP enforced the win-over-the-other rule and declared the Tigresses winners.

“We really wanted to win, show them (Lady Tams) that we’re hungrier and more deserving of the title,” said MVP Ma. Camille Manalo, who provided the marginal win in the welterweight division for UST, along with middleweight Izel Carmel Masungsong. “We offer this to our coach, Dindo Simpao, after what happened to the men’s team.”

The Tigresses won their 10th overall title, making up for their injury-hit male squad, which yielded the crown to La Salle after an emotionally draining 1-6 setback earlier.

FEU actually drew first blood against UST as Winlove dela Cruz defeated Monica Reyes in sudden death, 1-0, in the finweight class.

But UST fought back as flyweight Caryn Pilongo defeated Beatrice Anne Ventura, 10-5, and Asiad-bound bantamweight Jade Zafra outclassed Crizabelle Vargas, 7-1.

The Lady Tams equalized through featherweight Karla Alava’s 18-2 triumph over top rookie Claudette Reyes but lightweight Emron Mae Golding, the Asiad-bound Manalo and Masungsong swept the last three fights to hand the win to UST.

Golding crushed Ashiel Anne Ventura, 18-5, Manalo waylaid Sarah Tej Gill, 11-1, and Masungsong edged Monti Violeta Gadit, 6-5, as UST forged a triple tie with FEU and La Salle at No. 1.

UST’s high school squad, meanwhile, went back-to-back after hurdling all four matches in the preliminaries. The Tiger Cubs have now won eight of the last nine stagings of the tourney.