By Jerome Lagunzad
Her surname certainly rings a bell especially among avid WWE fans. But make no mistake about it: Penina Snuka eats, breathes and sleeps volleyball.
The former University of Arizona ace setter is raring to carve her own niche as she suits up for the Generika-Ayala Lifesavers in the 2017 Philippine Superliga (PSL) Grand Prix that gets going this tomorrow at The Arena in San Juan.
“I feel really honored and blessed that I come from this family,” said Penina, the proud granddaughter of late WWE Hall of Famer Jimmy “Superfly” Snuka and niece of Hollywood action star Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson.
“I’m someone who’s very close to my family so leaving them was kinda hard. But knowing that, I’m taking that name with me out here, I can hopefully make a good name for them. I take it with a lot of pride.”
Snuka has a golden chance to do such since she’ll be playing alongside fellow Wildcats standout, Croatian Katarina Pilepic, and Darlene Ramdin of Trinidad and Tobago as they try to bring the Lifesavers back to prominence after a series of letdowns.
So far, Snuka is fitting seamlessly with her local Generika-Ayala teammates led by skipper Angeli Araneta, Chloe Cortez, Shaya Adorador and Genveve Casugod, among others, since she arrived in the country two weeks ago.
And perhaps because of her skin color, Snuka is often considered by local fans as a Filipinas.“It’s kind of funny because everyone thinks I’m Filipino so I’ve had a lot of people just come up to me and just start speaking in you guys’ language,” she said in between laughs.
