It may not be the comeback game result that she wanted but Milena Alessandrini was just grateful for the opportunity to once again don the University of Santo Tomas jersey after four years.

The Filipina-Italian winger marked her return to the University Athletic Association of the Philippines with a commendable performance despite the Tigresses' heartbreaking 20-25, 25-16, 8-25, 25-15, 14-16 loss to De La Salle University in their Season 85 women's volleyball tournament opener last Sunday at the Mall of Asia Arena.

Alessandrini, in her first match since going down with a knee injury she sustained in Season 81 in 2019, finished with 10 points with nine coming off kills in four sets of play.

"Actually, I had a mix of emotions because I didn't play for a long time," Alessandrini said.

The outgoing spiker had a promising UAAP volleyball career after winning Rookie of the Year in Season 80 back in 2018 despite missing a few games due to a shoulder injury.

She was sidelined early the following season after injuring her knee and missed UST's Finals run against eventual champion Ateneo de Manila University. Alesssandrini did not see action in the pandemic-cancelled Season 82.

During those years, Alessandrini went through a long and hard road to recovery.

"Actually, it was very hard after the first operation on my knee didn't improve, so I have to take a second operation. I had a lot of ups and downs," she recalled.

"When I came here, I started to play volleyball again (for the first time) since I stopped in 2019. So it was a very long journey and very hard," the 6-foot-2 winger added.