St. John's University Athletics
Shawna-Lei Santos Makes Professional Volleyball Debut
11/4/2016 12:00:00 AM | Women's Volleyball
QUEENS, N.Y. - Former St. John's volleyball standout Shawna-Lei Santos, made her professional debut yesterday for the Cignal HD Spikers, a professional volleyball team in the Philippines.
"I never thought I would be able to have the opportunity to play the sport that I love so much, I'm taking this very seriously and playing every game likes it's my last," said Santos.
The Cignal HD Spikers play in the Philippine Super Liga (PSL), which was founded in 2013, where Santos is one of just two Americans on the team along with Laura Schaudt, who played for Oregon State.
In their opening match of the PSL, the Spikers dropped a tightly contested match 3-2 (25-21, 11-25, 26-24, 18-25, 11-15) to the F2 Logistics Cargo Movers. Santos, a native of Hawaii Kai, Hawaii, was an outstanding player during her four years from 2012-2015 playing for Head Coach Joanne Persico.
She was one of the best defensive players to ever don the St. John's volleyball uniform, recording 1,610 digs good for third-most in program history. She also ranks third in Red Storm history with 572 digs in a season, which occurred in 2013. The Hawaii native finished with three All-Tournament team selections during her four stellar years playing mostly libero at St. John's.
Her talents on the court were nationally noticed, as she was inviting to the USA volleyball tryouts twice in 2013 and 2014.
Santos was also chosen to speak on behalf of the St. John's student-body at the investiture of Conrado "Bobby" Gempesaw, Ph.D, as St. John's University's 17th president.
The next match for Santos and the rest of the Cignal HD Spikers is on Saturday at 12:30 a.m. EST against the Petron Tri-Activ Spikers.
