NATIONAL University’s Jaja Santiago ended her final collegiate year by winning the UAAP Season 80 women’s volleyball Most Valuable Player award.
The 6’5” Santiago will receive the biggest individual hardware in the awards ceremony just before Game 2 of the best-of-three championship between De La Salle and Far Eastern University at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.
Ateneo’s prolific hitter Marck Espejo, meanwhile, captured the men’s volleyball MVP for the fifth consecutive year.
Also in his final collegiate season, Espejo has duplicated the feat of University of the Philippines’ swimming sensation Luica Dacanay and De La Salle’s chess wizard John Paul Gomez as five-time MVP winners in any sport in the league.
University of Santo Tomas’ Sisi Rondina, one of Santiago’s biggest competitors in the MVP race, took the Best Scorer plum after finishing the eliminations with 296 points.
Santiago, who wound up second behind Rondina in scoring with 280 points, also emerged as the league’s Best Spiker with a 41.76 percent success rating.
The Best Blocker award went to Ced Domingo of the Lady Tamaraws, while Desiree Cheng of the Lady Spikers emerged as the Best Server.
University of the East’s star libero Kath Arado swept the Best Digger and Best Receiver awards, while Ateneo playmaker Deanna Wong clinched the Best Setter Plum.
Milena Alessandrini, for her part, became the first Tigresses player to win the Rookie of the Year honors since EJ Laure, who shared the top newcomer award with Arado in the 2014-15 season.
Aside from winning the MVP award with plenty to spare, Espejo added Best Scorer, Best Spiker and Best Server in his vast trophy case.
Espejo delivered one of the league’s greatest performances by scoring a record 55 points in Ateneo’s first Final Four win against FEU last April 21.
Other men’s individual awardees are UST’s Jayvee Sumagaysay (Best Blocker), Ateneo’s Ish Polvorosa (Best Setter), De La Salle’s Jopet Movido (Best Digger) and FEU’s Rikko Mamerto (Best Reciver).
The Eagles’ service specialist Bok Morado became this year’s top rookie.
