La Salle celebrates a second title this yr. —AUGUST DELA CRUZ
Shevana Laput will likely be a marked girl when the brand new UAAP season rolls round.
It can 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 in order that they will even have to … modify 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 Worthwhile Participant plum, she nonetheless feels removed from the shape that she needs to be for the Woman Spikers.
“Truthfully, on just like the TV, on stats, it’s good,” she stated on Saturday of her efficiency within the match 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 might be so significantly better. That’s not the most effective 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 successful Recreation 2 to power 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 staff and turned skilled.
Laput stepped up massive time with a constant scoring efficiency within the match, the place the Woman Spikers gained six of seven matches.
“I knew as a staff that we’re gonna get there,” Laput stated. “We labored arduous and though there was a loss [in Game 1 of the finals], we nonetheless labored arduous even after that. We developed our abilities so I knew that that was coming.”
“After we misplaced Recreation 1, we reminded the staff that we wouldn’t go to our subsequent video games to lose,” stated La Salle assistant coach Noel Orcullo. “We are going to 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 Woman 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 understanding that they’re there overlaying [for] me,” Laput stated as she credited her teammates for her MVP trophy, which can now put her identify extra prominently in scouting studies.
“It’s superb. It’s an honor like I stated. However I suppose this makes me really feel like I have to step up much more,” Laput stated of the award. “I have to work even tougher, you recognize, now that there’s this ‘repute’ type 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, hold 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 yr.
“We had been simply seeking to get publicity right here,” Orcullo stated. “However we acquired a bonus by successful [and] turning into champions. And the great factor is, we acquired to see what else is lacking with our staff and what we have to modify going into the UAAP.” INQ
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