The Varsitarian

THE ODDS notwithstanding, a medal-less homecoming was the last thing the UST Lady Woodpushers could think of.

Culling enough buffer points in the preliminaries, the Season 70 titlists survived a freak last-round mishap to nail the team bronze and join fellow UST medalists on the PRISAA victory trail last April 13 at the Pilar College auditorium in Zamboanga City.

Backstopped by Season 70 MVP Maria Zayrah dela Cruz, Romelin Guerra, Geneline de Ramos and Rizza Mae Dizon, the UST-powered National Capital Region delegation chalked up 12.5 points in five rounds to finish behind eventual champion Bacolod-Western Visayas (Region 6) and silver winner Cebu-Central Visayas (Region 7), which tallied 15 and 14.5 over-all markers, respectively.

De la Cruz, on the other hand, emerged as UST-NCR’s top individual performer, clinching the Board 2 gold with a tournament-best 4.5 points.

The eighth-seeded Lady Woodpushers found a hard time cracking a better- seeded opponent early in the 13-team mental joust, dropping a 1.5-2.5 first-round loss to no. 2 seed Holy Cross-Davao (Region 11) with only Board 3 enforcer De Ramos extracting the full point against Maria Serrano.

But the “three-peat” UAAP champions are no opening-game dwellers, immediately sending the white pieces into the aggressive line to essay a 4-0 shutout of no. 9 seed Central Mindanao (Region 12) and tie Holy Cross-Davao with 5.5 cumulative points after two rounds.

UST posted identical 3-1 wins over No. 5 seed Ilocos (Region 1) and No. 12 seed Calabarzon (Region 4) in the third and fourth rounds, respectively to carve an 11.5-point binge and share the lead with Cebu-Central Visayas going into the final round.

The Lady Woodpushers, however, yielded only a solitary point in the make-or-break fifth round courtesy of De La Cruz, who trounced Sarah Jane Letigio. The rest of UST’s duel boards fell by the wayside in favor of Cebu-Central Visayas, which also seized the individual golds in Boards 1 and 4. The Board 3 gold went to Bacolod-Western Visayas. Ilocos and Holy Cross-Davao rounded up the top five, placing fourth and fifth with 12 and 11.5 notchers, respectively.