National University men’s badminton team successfully seized the rare six-peat in the UAAP Season 82 badminton tournament after sweeping the Ateneo de Manila University in their best-of-three finals series held last October 4-5, 2019. The win stretched their undefeated run into 51 ties, the second longest active winning streak in the UAAP today.

Hailed as this season’s Most Valuable Player was NU veteran Frell Keeyan Gabuelo while recruit Solomon Padiz Jr. was named as the Rookie of the Year.

According to head coach Jaime Llanes, they plan to sustain the good badminton program to continue their historic run in the UAAP.

“We want to level up by having trainings abroad to prepare for the next season. They trained outside kasi before [Season 82] and I believe it helped a lot, there was a motivation to play better.”

Meanwhile, the women’s badminton team was also able to reach the podium after defeating the University of the Philippines in their bronze medal match last October 4. This is the first time the women’s team reached the podium after finishing in the fourth spot in the last three seasons.

“The women’s team really worked hard for that. Three years na kaming laging nasa fourth them coming out of eliminations, fourth pa rin kami, so sabi ko if they want this, if they want a podium finish, they need to step up.”