Jau Umandal delivered his best scoring performance this conference as Cignal punched the first ticket to the semifinals after escaping the D’Navigators in five sets, 21-25, 25-18, 20-25, 25-19, 15-7, in the 2024 Spikers’ Turf Open Conference, Wednesday at the Ynares Sports Arena.
Playing without Bryan Bagunas, who is currently in Taiwan to fulfill an obligation with WinStreak, the HD Spikers leaned on the red-hot Umandal, who fired a Spikers’ Turf career-high of 36 points on 32 attacks, three kill blocks, and one ace to go along with 10 excellent receptions and six excellent digs.
Umandal’s electrifying performance helped Cignal extend its unbeaten run to six games and become the first team to make it to the semifinals.
“Di ko expected na aabot ako sa ganito kataas. ‘Di kami nanalo dahil lang sakin, dahil sa buong team. So parang ‘di ko siya inisip, gusto ko lang talaga makatulong sa team,” said Umandal after his brilliant scoring performance.
The HD Spikers crawled back from a 1-2 set deficit and forced a deciding fifth set, wherein they ultimately dominated the D’Navigators after racing to a 12-5 advantage after an Umandal drop.
From there, the D’Navigators answered back with two consecutive points before Cignal took advantage of the opposing side’s sloppy execution and went on a 3-0 finishing kick to end the game after two hours and nine minutes of play.
“Pagod eh, parang hindi pa naka-recover doon sa last game namin sa Criss Cross. So, siguro it’s time to give them a break muna. Kailangan talaga nila magpahinga,” said HD Spikers head coach Dexter Clamor.
No other player reached twin digits in scoring for Cignal with Wendel Miguel and JP Bugaoan chipping in nine and six points, respectively.
Cian Silang, who replaced EJ Casana in the starting lineup, tossed 24 excellent sets to go along with two points while Vince Lorenzo and Sandy Montero collected 20 excellent receptions and 11 excellent digs, respectively.
The HD Spikers look to extend their unbeaten streak on Wednesday, 6:00 p.m. against VNS-Nasty at the Paco Arena.
On the other hand, the D’Navigators dropped their second consecutive game to fall to 4-2 in the standings.
Francis Saura led the team with 19 points while Edward Camposano and Deanne De Pedro contributed 17 and 12 points, respectively, in a losing effort.
The D’Navigators look to halt their skid against also-ran RichMarc Sports 3B also on Wednesday at 4:00 p.m.
