UST’s Eya Laure rises to occasion, bags UAAP Player of the Week

MANILA, Philippines – Eya Laure stepped up when needed most especially after University of Santo Tomas lost one of its main weapons in the UAAP Season 81 women’s volleyball tournament. 

The blue-chip rookie displayed her vaunted scoring prowess to help the Tigresses string their first back-to-back wins, making her the rightful winner for the Chooks-to-Go Collegiate Press Corps Player of the Week plum. 

Laure averaged 17.5 points and delivered the intangibles in UST’s conquest of three-time defending champion De La Salle University and National University. 

Coming off a stinging defeat that saw Filipino-Italian hitter Milena Alessandrini go down to a harrowing left knee injury, UST returned to action using that as rallying point with Laure leading the charge.

The wing spiker dropped 15 points off 13 attacks and 17 digs in the Tigresses’ masterful sweep of the Lady Spikers on Wednesday, March 6 – UST’s first win over La Salle since Season 78.

“Itong liga na ito, sila ‘yung defending champions. So isang malaking bagay na din, hindi lang sa akin pero sa buong team, ‘yung ma-boost ang confidence namin na kaya din namin,” said Laure.

(La Salle is the defending champion in this league. So it’s a big thing not just for me but for the whole team that we are confident that we can beat them.) 

Three days later, she followed it up with another stellar performance in UST’s four-set victory  over NU, which core is composed of Laure’s high school rivals.

Laure posted 20 points with all but 1 coming off attacks.

However, the freshman was quick to downplay the angle of payback against NU.  

“Hindi ko naman iniisip na ganoon. Iba naman talaga ‘pag college, iba ‘yung pinag-uusapan so ‘yung high school, nandoon na iyon, leave it there,” she said.

(I don’t think of it that way. It’s a different story now that I’m in college, it is also a different story when I was in high school. Let’s just leave it there.) 

Laure bested teammate Sisi Rondina, Ateneo de Manila University’s Kat Tolentino and Lycha Ebon and Far Eastern University’s Heather Guino-o for the weekly citation. – Rappler.com