Super Shaina Nitura aims for improvement, Final Four spot after historic UAAP rookie year

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Adamson super rookie, eventual UAAP MVP runner-up, and all-time top single-season scorer Shaina Nitura stays hungry for more after record-breaking Season 87 rookie campaign for the Lady Falcons

MANILA, Philippines – The best is yet to come for UAAP Season 87 women’s volleyball Rookie of the Year Shaina Nitura.

The young Adamson phenom promised to come out of the offseason as an even better version of herself following a historic rookie year, as she looks to finally bring the Adamson Lady Falcons to the Final Four in her sophomore year.

“What I am working on right now is to improve to bring Adamson to the semifinals next year,” she said in Filipino after receiving her award. “This will be a boost in my confidence in the coming season, but then again we are back to zero.”

The 20-year-old star is now the first Adamsonian Rookie of the Year in the 2000s after garnering historic highs in Season 87, among them a record-breaking 371-point total, the highest single-season scoring output in UAAP history in both men’s and women’s divisions.

Nitura also reached a single-game record of 38 points in the season and had six games total where she notched 30 or more points—another record to an already impressive career.

She finished with 74.259 statistical points (SPs), the second-best tally behind runaway three-time MVP and eventual three-time champion Bella Belen.

Nitura also almost notched the Best Outside Spiker award, only to fall short against La Salle’s Angel Canino by five SPs.

While keeping modest expectations for next year, Nitura hopes to come out an even greater player following the Lady Falcons’ Final Four absence, finishing a tad short of the playoffs in fifth place with a 6-8 win-loss record.

For now, Nitura is grateful to the Lady Falcons for helping her reach what she has achieved in her young career so far.

“I’m so thankful for my team, and my coaches for helping me achieved these things in my career,” she said. – Rappler.com