DLSU ace Angel Canino named UAAP rookie MVP

MANILA, Philippines — History repeats itself for the second UAAP season in a row as another rookie has been named Most Valuable Player in the women’s volleyball tournament with DLSU’s Angel Canino taking the plum.

Canino was hailed as both MVP and Rookie of the Year after accumulating 89.375 statistical points.

Canino came in 3rd among the league’s best scorers with 227 points at the end of eliminations.

The outside spiker had a 40.85% success rate on her spikes as she keyed DLSU to the top seed and a 13-1 record heading into the Final Four.

She follows in the footsteps of NU’s Bella Belen who also won MVP as a rookie in UAAP Season 84.

Other awards

Canino edged out teammate Jolina Dela Cruz with 86.875 SPs and UST’s Eya Laure with 84.074 SPs.

The 19-year-old is the first Lady Spiker to win the plum since Majoy Baron in 2017 (UAAP Season 79).

Fellow Lady Spiker Dela Cruz joins Canino as the best outside spiker of the season while FEU’s Jovelyn Fernandez was named best opposite spiker.

Dela Cruz ranked 8th in spiking, 7th in blocking, 3rd in service, 5th in reception, and 11th in digging. She tallied 298 ranking points as Canino had 289.

Dela Cruz was thus the 1st Best Outside Spiker while Canino earned the 2nd Best Outside Spiker award. Laure was third with 286 RPs.

Fernandez, for her part, edged NU’s Alyssa Solomon for the Best Opposite Spiker tag as she placed 4th in service and 7th in spiking.

She earned 203 RPs and narrowly edged out Solomon by just three RPs.

La Salle’s Thea Gagate and UP’s Nina Ytang received the best middle blocker plums while Mars Alba wrapped up DLSU’s awardees as the best setter.

Gagate (178 RPs) and Ytang (163 RPs) led the league’s blocking department with 0.69 and 0.66 blocks per set, respectively.

Alba, meanwhile, normed 4.49 excellent sets per canto in the elimination round.

Bernadett Pepito of UST copped the Best Libero award as she topped the league in both digging and reception. Pepito averaged 3.57 excellent digs per set and tallied 51.16% efficiency on reception.

She totaled 212 RPs, putting her 15 points ahead of Roma Mae Doromal of the Blue Eagles

Since UAAP Season 81, the league has been adopting the FIVB-position based awards.

The statistical points are computed by adding all the Rank Points of each player and multiplying the sum by 10. Games won are also included and multiplied by 30. The grand total is then divided by the number of sets played by the player's team.

Rank Points are determined by the player's place in each department, with each rank having corresponding Rank Points.

The cutoff has always been set after the elimination round.