La Salle celebrates a second title this 12 months. —AUGUST DELA CRUZ
Shevana Laput might be a marked girl when the brand new UAAP season rolls round.
It should imply one other spherical of adjustment for the La Salle standout, who unveiled herself as the subsequent key piece for La Salle’s championship-retention bid and who will garner much more defensive consideration from UAAP opponents.
However the 19-year-old reverse hitter isn’t fazed.
“It’s simply adjusting once more. I’ll nonetheless enhance as a participant so that they may also have to … alter to me nonetheless,” Laput stated, including that even after capping La Salle’s championship run within the Shakey’s Tremendous League Nationwide Invitationals with a Most Precious Participant plum, she nonetheless feels removed from the shape that she desires to be for the Girl Spikers.
“Truthfully, on just like the TV, on stats, it’s good,” she stated on Saturday of her efficiency within the event after La Salle completed off Adamson, 25-19, 25-22, 25-17, within the knockout match of their best-of-three title duel. “However I do know in myself that I may very well be so a lot better. That’s not the very best model of me and there’s nonetheless a lot extra that I have to do.”
Second 2023 crown
“I’ll [rate myself], say like [a] six [out of 10],” Laput, a rookie when La Salle gained the UAAP title final season, added.
Lower than 24 hours from profitable Recreation 2 to drive a rubber match, La Salle bared its tooth anew and flexed its dominance regardless of enjoying with out star Angel Canino and libero Justine Jazareno.
The UAAP champions thus gained a second crown in 2023, with this newest one coming after championship cogs Mars Alba, Jolina Dela Cruz and Fifi Sharma left the workforce and turned skilled.
Laput stepped up massive time with a constant scoring efficiency within the event, the place the Girl Spikers gained six of seven matches.
“I knew as a workforce that we’re gonna get there,” Laput stated. “We labored laborious and regardless that there was a loss [in Game 1 of the finals], we nonetheless labored laborious even after that. We developed our expertise so I knew that that was coming.”
“After we misplaced Recreation 1, we reminded the workforce that we wouldn’t go to our subsequent video games to lose,” stated La Salle assistant coach Noel Orcullo. “We’ll go into these video games to win.”
The 6-foot-2 Laput conspired with holdovers Thea Gagate, Alleiah Malaluan, Amie Provido and new beginning setter Julia Coronel to heed that message.
Laput led the Girl Spikers with 13 factors together with two blocks. Playmaker Coronel was hailed as Participant of the Recreation with 12 wonderful units as Gagate, Provido and Malaluan added 10 factors every. Maicah Larozza chipped in seven factors.
‘Status’
“My teammates gave me that belief. I may swing figuring out that they’re there protecting [for] me,” Laput stated as she credited her teammates for her MVP trophy, which is able to now put her identify extra prominently in scouting reviews.
“It’s superb. It’s an honor like I stated. However I assume this makes me really feel like I have to step up much more,” Laput stated of the award. “I have to work even tougher, , now that there’s this ‘status’ sort of factor.”
With the Shakey’s title within the pocket, La Salle can now give attention to defending its UAAP crown.
“Clearly, [we want to be] UAAP champions once more,” Laput stated. “We have to defend the crown, maintain it in Taft (La Salle’s Manila campus) so we [are] all gonna work tougher, smarter, [and with a lot of] puso (coronary heart).”
Laput’s emergence ought to assist fill the void of the departures of key figures in final season’s UAAP championship conquest. The rising teenager will reconnect with Canino and the remainder of the La Salle core as they gun for a repeat subsequent 12 months.
“We have been simply seeking to get publicity right here,” Orcullo stated. “However we received a bonus by profitable [and] turning into champions. And the great factor is, we received to see what else is lacking with our workforce and what we have to alter going into the UAAP.” INQ
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