IT DID not have to last another year.

The pain of repeatedly choking in the finals proved too much a nightmare for the UST Tiger Spikers to recall that dislodging their bitter rivals from the top became an undying motivation of sorts for the past five seasons.

With crunch-time lessons beefing up their arsenal, the Tiger Spikers announced their return to the UAAP volleyball summit via an epic five-set conquest of defending champion Far Eastern University, 25-20, 23-25, 25-19, 20-25, 15-11, in Game 3 of their best-of-three finals tussle at The Arena in San Juan last March 2.  read more »

THREE times the frustration.

For the third straight year, the UST Male Tracksters played second fiddle to a mighty Far Eastern University squad in the UAAP Track and Field competition last February 7 to10 at the Rizal Memorial.

The España-based tracksters tallied a 2-4-6 gold-silver-bronze medal output good for 152.5 points. Comfortably ahead of them was FEU with 311.5 points while Ateneo De Manila University came in third with 149 points.

“We knew that FEU will come out indomitable again,” coach Manny Calipes told the Varsitarian. “But we didn’t go home empty-handed after snaring three individual awards.”

“We have some promising rookies coming in next year, hopefully we will do better.”  read more »

AXED on both sides of the court, the UST Growling Tigers witnessed another off-season campaign slip off their hands as they absorbed a clinical 74-97 drubbing from the University of the East Warriors in the semifinals of the 3rd Fr. Martin Cup last February 24 at the Arellano gym.

“Our offense and defense were off. Even our freethrows hardly hit the mark,” coach Pido Jarencio told the Varsitarian. “But there is always room for improvement and this off-season we will polish every aspect of our game so that lapses will not happen again come the UAAP season.”

The Tigers played catch-up throughout the contest as the Recto-based cagers, displaying fluid offense and a menacing full-court pressure defense, buried the hatchet on their UST counterparts early in the first quarter.  read more »

DESIRE is their motivating fire.

Experience wanting, the UST Lady Shuttlecockers however showed where pure talent and determination could lead them: to the Promised Land.

The Lady Shuttlecockers finally arrested 13 years of luckless campaigns in the UAAP badminton circuit, posting a 3-0 whitewash of reigning champion Far Eastern University (FEU) in their best-of-five titular showdown last February 17 at the Rizal Memorial Badminton Hall.

“Determination was the biggest factor which helped them (Lady Shuttlecockers) beat more experienced opponents,” coach Noli Cajefe told the Varsitarian. “It was the best team I have seen in a long time.”  read more »

RELAYING miscues in the final touches of a must-win encounter weighed heavily on the UST Golden Sox’s back-to-back title drive as the Season 69 champions turned into victims of their own crime in a 3-5 Game 3 heartbreaker against last season’s bridesmaids Adamson University Falcons last March 2 at the Rizal Memorial Ballpark.

“We fell short on the defensive end,” assistant coach Sherwin Canlas told the Varsitarian. “The unnecessary errors in the endgame really hurt us.”

The Golden Sox uncharacteristically cluttered the field with defensive boners in the bottom of the eighth inning, resulting in two effortless Adamson runs by Falcon catcher Edward Landicho and left fielder Richard Siacor that suddenly melted UST’s precarious 3-2 seventh-inning lead.  read more »

IN A DISPLAY of togetherness among Thomasians from different sectors of the UST community, the second annual Community Friendship Basketball tournament was held from November 17 to February 23 at the UST Gym.

The tournament was graced by league pioneers Saturday Club and Thursday Club alongside teams composed of security guards, hospital employees, UST coaches, casual and contractual employees, janitors, faculty, and non-academic employees.

The championship trophy eventually went to the Thursday Club after narrowly escaping the varsity coaches with a 94-91 victory last February 23.

The coaches held the upper hand, 89-91, after volleyball coach Clarence Esteban hit an under-goal stab with 32 ticks left in the final canto.

In the ensuing play however, Tiger Cubs coach Allan Ascue committed a costly foul on Mythical Five member Julius Caesar Rabino who then split his charities to cut the coaches’ lead, 90-91.  read more »

*Itinatampok sa bahaging ito ang dalawang magkaibang pananaw hinggil sa paksain ng pag-ibig mula sa iba’t ibang punto-de-bista at karanasan ng mga may-akda - Patnugot

Panaginip ni Adan

Ni RUBEN JEFFREY A. ASUNCION

LUMITAW ang mga pangitain

Sa karimlan ng kanyang pagkakahimbing.

Nawari niya rito ang ilang eksenang

Daranasin ng kanyang mga apo,

Ilang libong taon mula ngayon:

Humahagulhol ang isang binata

habang hawak-hawak pa

Ang kababasa pa lamang na liham ng

pamamaalam mula sa nobya

Mga maton na nagsusuntukan sa gitna ng kalye

habang pinapanood ng kanilang

nakursunadahang prinsesa ang tila

muling pagganap ng Digmaang Troyano

Gayumpaman, may kung anong bulong  read more »

HINAHAMAK ng sinumang umiibig ang lahat upang ang kagustuhan ng puso ay masunod lamang, wika nga ni Francisco Baltazar.

Naging patunay sa mga salitang ito ang mga salaysay ng pagharap sa iba’t-bang hamon ng pag-ibig sa Tuhug-Tuhog: 25 Maiikling Kuwento ng Pag-ibig at Pakikipagsapalaran ng mga OFWs (Navotas Press, 2005) ng premyadong mandudula na si Frank G. Rivera.

Halaw ang mga kuwento sa mga karanasan ng mga Pilipinang nakasalamuha ni Rivera bilang testing officer ng Technical Education and Skills Development Authority. Ang mga salaysay na ito ay magkakaugnay na mga bahagi na kapag naunawaan ang mga detalye ay makakabuo ng isang nobela.  read more »

IN LITERATURE, there are no double standards.

As part of its series paying tribute to women of letters, the Ateneo Library of Women’s Writings (Aliww) honored literary icon Ophelia Dimalanta in the 13th Paz Marquez-Benitez Memorial Lecture and Exhibit last Dec. 4 at the Science Education Complex of the Ateneo de Manila University. Kicked off in 1995, the event, named after literary matriarch Paz Marquez-Benitez, is an annual tribute to Filipino women-writers who have greatly influenced and shaped Philippine literature.

“Even if the poet’s language is in a way gendered, and even if the woman poet speaks most of the time of women, she speaks to all, regardless of gender,” Dimalanta said in her remarks thanking Ateneo for the tribute.  read more »

DISCLAIMER

Although these words cannot lay claim to such philosophical excellence of the kind that can begin or end an intellectual era, all that one implores of a reader is a listening mind to another mind’s wonderment at the world we live in. But why worry? In the end, as good friends would often say of our ceaseless doubting: who can tell you what to believe?

Prolegomena

Man thrives on representations. And it will be the death of him.

When something absent needs to be present, man creates something to stand for it. Or when a thing is too great or too minuscule to be there just as it is, a symbol must exist for it. But while these proxies have become the pillars of human life, it cannot be denied that they have placed us farther from the truth.  read more »