MT Bags Table Tennis Win

By this point, the Medical Technology Vikings had the title for eight years, so the pressure was on for the men’s team to bring home another win. Without fail, they had succeeded in adding yet another win to their ever-growing collection of championship trophies and did not lose a single match that afternoon.

The sound of hard plastic tapping on wood was almost too hard to miss on the afternoon of the first day of the 2023 Velez College Intramurals as table tennis paddles were swung in a battle to see who would win this year’s championship title.

Vital Signs interviewed player Taj Liam Banzon who had been playing table tennis since his high school years as a pastime of his. Being a senior member of the team, he had to admit that the tryouts for this year’s table tennis team were a great opportunity to befriend people from different blocks in his batch as well as other Medical Technology batches.

This bond grew stronger during training when they would be matched up against each other while their team captain, Jonaylir Pol P. Dionela, helped them improve on points that he noticed were lacking. They also worked on various pair combinations to prepare for the doubles games to ensure that each pair synchronized well with the other. However, he had to admit that having different batches made coordinating training schedules a lot harder, especially with a lot of them being second-year and third-year students. The team did pull through in the end thanks to careful time management and confidence in each other’s skills.

During the intramurals, he admitted that every department had formidable players which made them strategize carefully. As he put it, “A large portion of the game is won by deception and confidence,” which could be seen as everyone on the team got to play a game. While they were nervous, Banzon pointed out that the key was to not let it get to their head and focus on the game.

Banzon was thrilled knowing that they had continued the streak and that training for three consecutive days with their team from morning until evening before the opening ceremony, paid off. In his eyes, the team had gotten that far because they loved the sport that they were playing. Moreover, it was for all the Vikings that they did their absolute best to win. They do plan to continue improving their skills as individuals with each other’s help because they are more than just a team. They were a family, and they would not allow anyone to get left behind.