With better back up, Nitura out to lead Falcons to history
Picking up from her historic rookie season last year, Shaina Nitura is playing with less pressure because of a more complete roster for the Adamson Lady Falcons in Season 88 of the UAAP women’s volleyball tournament.
After tallying the most points scored in a season with 371, highlighted by a single-game record of 38 and the most points by a rookie in a debut with 33, Nitura—for sure—practically owned the league and even got a call-up from Alas Pilipinas, which sharpened her more.
On Sunday, though, the 20-year-old spiker delivered “just” 16 points in a 25-19, 25-18, 25-10 rout of Ateneo on Sunday at Mall of Asia Arena, proving that the bespectacled hitter has some support this time.
And she knows it.
“It’s pretty much the same, but it actually feels lighter for us as a team because it’s a collective effort,” Nitura said in Filipino. “If someone’s off or I’m off, there’s always someone ready to step up.”
Frances Mordi had 14 points and rookie Abby Segui debuted with eight points and five digs in giving Nitura support.
“As you can see, we’re really complete. If Abby doesn’t click, we have our opposite,” Nitura went on. “If I’m not producing, we have a deep bench, so there’s really no pressure on me. Especially since we’re a young team, there’s still so much room to grow.”
Segui, also an Adamson High School product, bucked the pressure of playing her first game, focusing on her role to help Nitura and her teammates.
Final Four-dreaming
With high expectations on her and the team with her Alas experience in the Southeast Asian Games, AVC Women’s Cup and SEA V.League, Nitura focuses on building their team chemistry on their mission to reach the Final Four this year.
“We’re just focused on improving and building together. In time, if it’s God’s will and if we’ve truly earned it, we believe the results will come,” said Nitura.
“Ever since high school, we already talked about competing together in college,” Nitura went on. “We’re hoping to carry over the chemistry we built back then into this level. Now, we’ll see how we can continue building that chemistry—and hopefully history—together with the people God has given us.”
“The pressure is definitely there. But I just let it be,” Segui said. “I focus on playing well and training well. Coach and Shaina guide me every day in training, so in this game, I just focused on doing my role as an opposite and helping lift up my teammates.
“As a first-year player, it hasn’t been easy,” Segui went on. “The whole process—especially during the offseason—really tested me. But thank God we got the win in our first game. We’re just taking it one step at a time, one game at a time.
“The lapses we had today, we’ll work on them so we can fix them in the next game.”
