Fhei Sagaysay (right) deserves a kiss—and some of the credit—for the meteoric rise of longtime teammate and friend Shaina Nitura. —UAAP MEDIA Alyssa Solomon (right) is working her way to top form. —UAAP MEDIA.
A lot has already been said about Shaina Nitura taking the UAAP Season 87 women’s volleyball tournament by storm. But the Adamson ace has also constantly given credit to her teammates, knowing fully well that she couldn’t have broken records alone.
Allowing Nitura to shine is playmaker Fhei Sagaysay who has stood by the super rookie’s side way before all the accolades that she has achieved here.
And theirs is a connection that wasn’t built overnight.
“We have been through a lot of challenges especially outside the court,” Sagaysay told the Inquirer in Filipino. “I value our friendship. I am grateful for her because she’s one of the people who helped me come this far.
“She’s one of the people who strengthens my fortitude.”
Before taking their act to the seniors division, the dynamic duo gave Adamson its first girls’t title last season, clinching an outright Finals berth on the back of a perfect 14-0 elimination run before dethroning powerhouse National University Nazareth School.
Nitura was hailed the season and Finals MVP on top of being the Best Outside Spiker for the second straight season with Sagaysay honored as the best setter. Sagaysay is currently fifth among the setters averaging 4.09 sets per frame.
“Since high school … We have had disagreements and sometimes we don’t talk to each other but [when we fix things] we end up with a good outcome,” Sagaysay added. “I am so grateful to have gone through that because everyone goes through hardships before achieving what we have done.”
Turns out that the setter draws inspiration none other than from her longtime teammate, saying that “Shai has a great personality that she is able to inspire other people. We have a connection because we are both competitive and want to always fight [for our team].”
Make some noise
Unfortunately, the stellar rookie campaign of Nitura and her connection with Sagaysay hasn’t translated into a lot of success for the Lady Falcons, who are no longer in Final Four contention.
That doesn’t mean they plan on exiting quietly.
“We want to muddle things up [in the semifinal race]. Actually, after our loss to Ateneo [with contenders still left on our schedule] our mindset was to make the standings complicated … improve our standing … play our best so we won’t have regrets at the end of the season,” she said.
Already, Adamson owns upsets over strong contenders in NU and recently Far Eastern University. It can add more names to that list when it closes out against La Salle and University of the Philippines.
And expect Sagaysay to continue helping the Adamson moving forward as she and Nitura strive to further make the Falcons soar.
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“I think the sadness that we were not able to make our seniors experience a Final Four [appearance] and playing better when it was too late is there. But it’s still a win-win situation because it’s a big experience for us [going to] Season 88 and we are looking forward to more good things happening for the team,” Sagaysay said. INQ
