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JOSEF T. RAMOS

SIMPLY the best.

Nobody thought it would end up close.

Henberd Ortalla, the head coach of many-time UAAP champion Santo Tomas U, though, made sure the night belongs to the Philippine National Police (PNP) at the end of the first Philippine Table Tennis Championship team events.

Ortalla got two crucial victories – including the last match – to pilot the PNP-Butterfly squad to a nail-biting 3-2 win over the Julius Esposo-led Quezon City paddlers in the men’s team championship round at the Philsports Arena in Pasig.

2008 National Champs by Danilo Dividina

After Paul ‘the backhand killer’ Puentespina’s 12-10, 11-7, 5-11, 13-11 win over James Borleo, Ortalla came out aggressive in his first match against Joseph Cruz, scoring a close 11-8, 12-14, 11-9, 9-11, 13-11 win, to give PNP a 2-0 edge in the team event.

“Yup that’s too close,” said Ortalla, referring to his first match against Cruz. “But we are very determined to answer their challenges and yes we did.”

But Julius Esposo, a former national player, and Cruz refused to roll over and let his team go home without giving the policemen a good fight. They managed to tie the count to 2-2 after winning against separate PNP players.

Ortalla withstood Quezon City’s back-to-back wins with an impressive 11-9, 13-11, 8-11, 11-9 win against Esposo in the fifth match to help PNP win the crown of the event participated by more than 65 local government units (LGUs).

In the women’s team event, the Filipino-Chinese Athletic Association Federation swept the Negros Occidental-LOPTTA squad, 3-0, to gain the women’s team event title.

Keith Lhyn Cruz defeated Benjie Lyn Dayap, 11-7, 11-8, 11-5, while Chrisanta Abas defeated Marell Lagunday, 11-9, 11-7, 11-9, and national player Ian Lariba blanked Cheryl Tiongco, 11-6, 11-5, 11-7, to complete the sweep.

Last 5 posts by Josef Ramos

• PNP stays unbeaten 7 times, wins 7th AFP-PNP Olympics crown - November 8th, 2008
• 1st Philippine National Table Tennis Championship update - November 2nd, 2008
• Ortalla leads PNP, earns 1st Phil Table Tennis title - November 1st, 2008
• Phil Table Tennis Championship results: PNP-Butterfly enters semifinals - October 30th, 2008
• RP captures gold, bronze in Indonesia - October 25th, 2008

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