The School of Nursing (SON) Panthers’ Arthone Dela Cruz and Sofhia Dy surged past the Social Sciences (SS) Dragons’ Irish Erika Elisan and Gabriel Expiditus Mayor, 15-11, in the first Palarong Atenista pickleball mixed doubles match.

The Panthers opened the game with the first serve, but an immediate baseline error handed possession over to the Dragons, who capitalized on it to leap to a 4-0 lead. The Panthers quickly notched two points to close the gap to 4-2 in their next rotation.

The middle stretch of the game became a point-for-point tactical battle until the Dragons committed an out-of-bounds error, allowing the Panthers to equalize the match for the first time at 5-5.

Responding quickly to the tie, the SS Dragons took advantage of their rotation to widen the gap again to 8-5. SON’s second server delivered a clutch performance under pressure to rack up three points to tie again at 8-8.

After trailing wire-to-wire through the early half of the game, SON grabbed their first lead at 10-9, which extended to 11-9 on SS’s sudden string of net and baseline faults, prompting a timeout call.

After the timeout, the Dragons regrouped brilliantly to rattle off two quick points to tie once again at 11-11.

The Dragons eventually gave SON the match point after driving the ball out of bounds following an intense dink battle dominated by Panthers’ second server Dela Cruz, 14-11. Another timeout was called by the Dragons.

Out of the timeout to seal the game, Dela Cruz delivered another serve, which ended with SS’s forced return catching the net, completing SON’s 15-11 championship.

Dy attributed their win in part to a change in strategy during the finals.

“Nag-change kami ng strategy. What didn’t work sa eliminations, nag-try kami find ng way paano kaya kami na maging better for the finals.”

Following the SS pair’s landslide win over them in an earlier elimination match, Dela Cruz explained that they chose to prioritize minimizing errors in the championship match.

“Kalaban namo sila (SS Dragons) sa eliminations… 11-1 lang. 1 lang mi, 11 sila… Ang gi-change lang namo kay instead of trying to win points, gi-minimize lang namo ang error. Trying not to lose points na lang ang gigawa namin,” Dela Cruz said.

Pickleball’s debut in Palarong Atenista

This year’s Palarong Atenista marks the first time that pickleball was included in the lineup of games.

In an interview with Atenews, University Athletics Office director Bemi Garcia said that the inclusion of the sport in this year’s Palaro was driven by both the sport’s “inclusive” nature and the student body’s demand.

“One of our objective is to invite all stakeholders, the students across all units, across all disciplines. One of our objectives is inclusivity regardless of our skill, our background, our upbringing.”

Garcia explained that the appeal of pickleball is that it is friendlier for beginners and older age groups than most sports.

“Pag badminton, ma-intimidate ka kung beginner ka. But for pickleball, there’s no discrimination when it comes to this kind of sport. You can play… regardless of your level… Tagaan lang kag paddle, makadula na ka.”

With this, the suggestion to add the sport to the lineup of the Palarong Atenista games was raised in preparatory meetings earlier this year.

“One reason why we include pickleball in this year’s Intramurals is because of the demand sa SAMAHAN. Grabe, as you know, there are so many trends… Someone lobbied. ‘Sir, can we include pickleball as part of intramurals?’”

However, Garcia also admitted to initial reservations due to the university’s lack of a varsity pickleball team and their unfamiliarity with the game.

“[But] we don’t have varsity program yet, we cannot send just anyone to be our organizer, wala kaming knowledge sa [pickleball], even ako.”

Despite this, supports and efforts of the UAO team led to the debut of pickleball in Palarong Atenista.

“Ang owner nito (pickleball court), coach natin sa volleyball. Sabi niya, ‘Sir, parang grabe ang trend sa pickleball. Na-coconvert ang mga bodega.’ So we decided to come up with feasibility study kung effective siya. Mao ni, isa sa mga programs karon sa school, dapat diri gyud ang intrams.”

The Palarong Atenista 2026 pickleball matches were held at The Playground Pickleball & Cafe last October 11.