By Jonas Terrado (www.mb.com.ph)
La Salle completed its mastery over University of Santo Tomas by scoring a 4-1 win to capture the 71st UAAP men’s tennis title Friday at the Rizal Memorial Tennis Center.
Led by co-Most Valuable Players PJ Tierro and Irwin de Guzman, the Green Archers overpowered their rivals to sweep their best-of-three title series.
It was La Salle’s first championship since 2006. This time, however, the championship was much sweeter.
The Tigers were just a win away from winning the title via an eight-game sweep. But Tierro, a Davis Cup veteran, and company beat them in the final day of the elims to force a best-of-three championship.
It was a huge disappointment for the España-based netters as they blew away the opportunity of scoring a three-peat. That also denied them of scoring a rare double sweep of the tournament after its women counterparts bagged the title last week.
Tierro, the country’s top-ranked netter, combined with Jandrick de Castro in edging out Gerald Pinili and Roman Floreza, 6-0, 6-1, in the second doubles match while de Guzman trounced Michael Narvaez, 6-0, 6-3, in the first singles match.
Also winning for the Archers were John Will Baldonado who beat Raymund Villarete, 6-4, 5-7, 2-0 (ret) while Michael Basco won over Keane Barraquias, 6-1, 7-5, in the third singles affair.
Wilbur Orillano and Alexander Diego prevented an embarrassing shutout loss for UST as they beat David Alexander de Koenigswarter and Isaac Sabas, 6-4, 6-3, in the first doubles match.
Meanwhile, Ateneo’s Julius Lagman was named Rookie of the Year while Nikki Manalo of UST won the women’s MVP for the second straight season. La Salle’s Trudy Amoranto bagged the rookie of the year plum in the women’s side.