Milena Alessandrini has mixed emotions in return to UST

Milena Alessandrini is back with University of Santo Tomas and the UAAP after not playing volleyball for almost four years.

The Fil-Italian spiker suffered a season-ending left knee injury in just the Golden Tigresses’ fourth game of Season 81. She did not play in Seasons 82 and 84 as well as she was still not yet in playing condition.

On Sunday, Alessandrini returned in the UAAP as UST bowed to De La Salle University in five sets, 20-25, 25-16, 8-25, 25-15, 14-16.

She delivered 10 points in four sets of play, including four in the pivotal fifth frame.

“Actually I had a mix of emotions because I didn’t play for a long time. But it’s just the first game, so I need to improve a lot, especially my mentality, my mind, to face the season,” Alessandrini said.

The 6-foot-1 Tigress looked back on her long path to recovery from her partial anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) tear and grade 3 sprains on her medial collateral ligament (MCL) and lateral collateral ligament (LCL) in the left knee.

A journey that took four years in the making.

“It was very hard because after my first operation, my knee didn’t improve so I had to take second operation. I had a lot of ups and downs and when I came here, I started to play again volleyball since I stopped in 2019,” shared the soft-spoken Alessandrini.

“Very long journey and very hard, but I have to say a lot of people supported me,” she added.

But what really pushed her to come back to the Philippines?

Golden Tigresses head coach Kungfu Reyes said that the Season 80 Rookie of the Year wanted to continue what she built in her two seasons with UST.

Alessandrini, even during the height of the pandemic, did not lose contact with her coaches at UST. She sent videos of her physical conditioning and improvement in 2021 according to a report by The Varsitarian, the school’s official publication.

“We’re very lucky kasi bumalik si Milena. She wanted to finish what she started,” said Reyes.

Reyes hopes Alessandrini will reach 100-percent of her strength by the second round of action.