The Filipino homegrown showcased her skills and went undefeated in the preliminary rounds with a 20/20 record in the pool bouts that gave her the top spot to advance in the semifinals.

Some of her many battles that shined the best were against Haley Koo of Stanford, Konami Masui of University of California San Diego, University of North Carolina’s Aubrey Malloy, Duke’s Christina Ferrari, and Stefani Deschner of Notre Dame scoring 5-4 each of them.

But the most outstanding battle was with  the Singaporean who plays for Notre Dame Amita Berthier, nevertheless, tamed her with a 5-3 score

Catantan is already known for her superb performance for the University of the East in the UAAP as she helped the Junior Red Warriors win a ninth consecutive girls’ title during her final high school year.

Moreover, she added more titles under her belt as she won two bronzes in the individual and team foil in the 2019 Southeast Asian Games.

And with the new development for Catantan, she shared her gratitude saying that “I’m very happy that I made it to the semifinal of the US NCAA, despite being a freshman, I was able to represent Penn State and of course the Philippines well.” In a message exchange with Manila Bulletin. 

“I’m thankful to my coaches and teammates here at Penn State, teammates with the national team, my coaches Amat and Chris and everybody with the national team, and to my family and friends for their prayers and support,” she concluded.