Monday, March 10, 2008 Dasian claims first title in Prince All Students
A LITTLE-known player from Naga, Cebu claimed the first title in the Prince All-Students tennis championships yesterday at the Alta Vista Tennis Courts.
Elma Dasian took the elementary girls division of the two-weekend competition after ousting out-of-towner Mary Joy Calapre, 8-6, following an 8-4 semifinal victory of Mary Grace Miñoza.
While Dasian was basking in the glory of her first win, a highly-touted netter, Jacob Lagman, was making his presence felt in the second day of the competition.
Lagman, the country’s top player in his age group, rocked the house with two emphatic victories in the elementary boys division yesterday, refusing to concede a single point against his foes.
The top-seeded player who had enjoyed a bye in the first day, let Justine dela Cerna of Pardo suffer Lagman’s lethal strikes, 8-0 in the Round of 8 and quickly moved to the semifinal round after pulverizing a hapless Christopher Encarnacion,8-0, in the quarterfinal round.
Lagman, a Sportswriters Association of Cebu awardee booked a semis outing with John Michael Necessario.
Necesario made it to the penultimate round following his 8-4 exploit over Christian Ugarte. Another player who moved to the semifinals was Michael Wamar of Carcar, who defeated Joshua Kinaadman of Lapu-Lapu City, 8-2.
Meanwhile, the junior netters of the University of the Visayas also made a strong impression in the competition.
Quarterfinals
Three provincial meet-bound athletes of UV, John Francis Largo, Larry Antigua and Cyril Camporedondo all booked tickets to the quarterfinal round of the secondary boys division.
Leading UV’s charge was the top-seeded Largo, who rained on Paolo Cenabre’s parade. On the first day, Cenabre pulled off an exciting come-from- behind-win but his momentum was arrested, when Largo mercilessly annihilated Cenabre to boot him out of contention.
Antigua, who is seeded second in this category, dominated University of San Jose-Recoletos’ Gerald Lambayan, 8-1.
Camporedondo, on the other hand, defeated University of San Carlos’ (USC) Christian Paul Cabahug, 8-3.
Chance
USC’s chance for a title is standing on wafer-thin ice as only Bernardine Niño Siso is left standing.
Siso, another SAC awardee, trounced University of Cebu’s Jess Anthony Espinosa, 8-2, to keep USC’s bid for a title alive.
The winners move to the quarterfinal round against still to be determined foes.
In the distaff side of the same category, moving to the second round were Khara Abadia, Cheska Tabotabo and Jessica Lagman, after winning their respective matches yesterday. (MCB)
