Attention should also be paid to men's volleyball.
"Sana suportahan pa rin talaga 'yung men's [volleyball]."
Cotabato Spikers' Jao Umandal said this to the media on Friday after a stunning five-set match against the Cignal HD Spikers for the Spikers' Turf Open Conference championship.
Cotabato has done what no other team has done before in the conference—take more than one set against the powerhouse squad and force them to a full match.
In the end, Cignal completed the 15-match sweep of the conference to capture their sixth Spikers' Turf title.
Umandal, though, picked up the Most Valuable Player of the Conference award, having led Cotabato as its top scorer, top spiker, top blocker, top receiver, and second-best server in the preliminaries. He averaged 21.5 points in the finals.
He hopes this would further improve interest in the men's game.
"Malaking tulong," he said. "Kasi nakakabalik na 'yung men's volleyball sa Pilipinas."
This is the second edition of the tournament held since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. It has also expanded the field from seven teams in 2022 to eleven in 2023.
But Umandal quickly deflected the attention to the 2018 Spikers' Turf Open Conference MVP, Bryan Bagunas.
"Si Bryan 'yung nag-angat sa bansa, siya talaga ngayon ang nagbibigay ng karangalan," Umandal noted.
Bagunas, who played with Sta. Elena-National University in 2018, left to play for the Oita Miyoshi Weisse Adler in Japan and then moved to Win Streak in Taiwan.
Just last month, the 6-foot-5 wing spiker led Win Streak to the Top League championship. He scored 37 in Game 1 and 21 points in Game 2, before exploding for 42 in Game 3.
For Umandal, the skill of Filipino volleyball players should be worth noticing. It was also the men's volleyball team, after all, which won a silver medal in the 2019 Southeast Asian Games.
"Sana suportahan pa rin talaga 'yung men's [volleyball], kasi 'yung men's ang nagdadala ng karangalan sa bansa natin," Umandal reiterated.
"Si Bryan 'yung isa sa mga dahilan kung bakit nakikilala tayo sa ibang bansa."
He hopes to follow in Bagunas' footsteps with the tryouts for the Korean V-League happening later this month. Also invited in the draft taking place in Jeju Island are reigning Finals MVP Marck Espejo, Best Middle Blocker JP Bugaoan, and Best Libero Manuel Sumanguid III of the Cignal HD Spikers.
"May pressure pero masaya," said Umandal, who has been an import himself in the Bahraini league.
The power spiker, one of the handful of players left from the 2021 edition of the national team, is also set to lead the Philippine squad in the 2023 SEA Games in Cambodia. He says the Cotabato Spikers' silver medal finish boosts their morale heading to the regional competition, since a significant number of players are also part of the national pool.
For Umandal, his silver medal, his MVP trophy, and the shot at trying for the Korean V-League further strengthens the chip on his shoulder.
"May pride ako sa sarili ko," he said. "Kahit pang sa'kin lang, may confidence ako na nadadala sa ibang bansa."
And in a volleyball-crazy nation that turns female players into stars, Umandal hopes the audience can take pride in the male players, too.
(With reports from Jamie Velasco, One Sports Digital)