THE UST Lady Booters opened their UAAP Season 87 women’s football campaign with a 0-2 defeat to last season’s silver medalists DLSU Lady Booters on Saturday, Sept. 21.
The Season 86 finalists showed an aggressive offense-defense pattern throughout the match, keeping the rebuilding UST squad scoreless at the UP Diliman Football Stadium.
Early fouls from UST gave DLSU’s Angelica Teves free kicks in the 8th and 17th minutes of the match but were later denied by UST’s solid defense.
Lady Booter Maye Mandaño tried to score for DLSU, but UST’s goalkeeper Lizlie Garcia blocked the penalty kick.
Team captain Shai del Campo attempted to give the Taft squad the first goal in the 25th minute, but the attack went out of bounds.
UST striker Rica Gerona had a chance to put the España squad ahead at the 32nd mark, but went wide, leaving the game still locked at 0-all.
In stoppage time (45’ + 2), UST showed a formidable defense but ultimately fell short when Arantxa Trebol found an open spot to score for DLSU’s first goal, 1-0.
During the second half, Garcia made successive crucial saves against DLSU strikers Chenny Dañoso in the 52nd and Teves in the 59th minute.
However, UST’s tight defense started to crumble, especially when Gerona received a yellow card at the 63rd mark.
UST tried to regroup by adjusting to its defense pattern, but DLSU maintained its structured offense-defense pattern.
Del Campo set the tempo for DLSU, allowing rookie striker Maria Tanjangco to fire a well-placed near-post shot to seal the victory, 2-0.
The UST Lady Booters seek to bounce back as they face the FEU Lady Booters on Saturday, Oct. 19, at the same venue. F
