The Social Science (SS) Dragons escaped a dogfight against the Accountancy (ACC) Griffins in the 2024 Palarong Atenista women’s Table Tennis singles championship, with the Natural Sciences and Mathematics (NSM) Falcons cruised against opponents to go back-to back in the women’s doubles. 

SS Dragons’ Jennie Sevilla paved the way and carried the cluster to triumph after shutting down ACC Griffins’ Khyla Latonio in a close back-and-forth matchup, 4-2 (9-11, 11-9, 12-14,11-4, 11-7,11-7).

Despite the win, Sevilla shared that she struggled with the aggressive gameplay of Latonio, which cost her the first opening set, 9-11.

“As a player that is a defender, I learned to be patient since I’m not more of an attacker,” Sevilla uttered.

The strategy proved to be dangerous and effective as Sevilla denied every smashing hit Latonio unleashed to prevail in the next set, 11-9.

Down but not out, the ACC Griffin started the third set hot with a 7-2 run by constantly punishing the errors of Sevilla to come out on top of a close set, 14-12.

According to Sevilla, she felt immense pressure following the third set since everybody expected her to ace the tournament.

Even though the momentum shifted to the opposing side, Sevilla kept her composure and displayed a masterclass passive gameplay that made Latonio succumb in the next three sets to take home the crown of this year’s event.

Meanwhile, the NSM Falcons breezed through the women’s table tennis doubles division, going back-to-back in the said event by dominating the pair from the SS Dragons.

Tag team Celine De Las Llagas and Yornyll Balaud steam rolled their way to the top of the pack with a 3-0 record, going undefeated in the whole tournament.

The pair from the NSM Falcons stomped SS Dragons’ Xianne Polinar and Pome Jaranilla, 4-1 (11-5, 9-11, 11-6, 11-5, 11-8) in their grand finals head-to-head.

“We felt tired but really happy, since we did not expect the finals would be a best of seven, but in the end, we felt gratified,” De Las Llagas said.

Both teams traded blows to kickstart the game, equalizing the standings, 1-1, but the NSM duo constantly utilized their slow-paced rally’s combined with Balaud’s sudden heavy smashes in the following sets to finish off the tournament.

For the singles category, ACC Griffins bagged silver, with NSM Falcons snatching bronze, while the SS Dragons brought home silver, and the School of Nursing (SON) Panthers settled for bronze in the doubles.

The table tennis tournament took place at the 6th Floor of Martin Hall on September 15.