MANILA, Philippines – In only his first year in the UAAP, 17-year-old Marck Espejo of Ateneo de Manila University wrote his name in the history books as he snatched the top two individual awards in the men’s volleyball competition.
Espejo accumulated 90.19 statistical points behind his 21.3 points, 2.4 blocks and 1.6 service aces average to oust last year’s co-MVP Mark Gil Alfafara and Red Christensen, who finished in second and third in the race, respectively.
The relentless spiker thus made history by grabbing the Rookie of the Year and Most Valuable Player plums.
Meanwhile, University of Santo Tomas’ Alfafara and Christensen of De La Salle University were too far from Espejo after getting only 82.414 SPs and 70.357 SPs each.
But Alfafara didn’t go home empty handed after being named Best Spiker, Best Scorer and Best Server.
In total, Ateneo got four individual awards with Ish Polvorosa and JP Pareja awarded as Best Setter and Best Receiver.
University of the Philippines’ Julius Raymundo was named Best Blocker.
As of posting time, the Eagles are on a do-or-die situation against the defending champion National University in the Game 2 of the Finals.