Spikers’ Turf: Umandal, Bugaoan share concern for Cignal’s error-prone outing in sweep of PGJC-Navy

The Cignal HD Spikers may have swept the PGJC-Navy Sea Lions on Wednesday night, but Jau Umandal and JP Bugaoan believe their performance has left much to be desired.

The reigning champions needed every bit of Umandal’s game-high 23-point outburst to compensate for their error-prone showing and turn back a relatively wasteful Sea Lions side for a 3-0 start in 2024 Spikers’ Turf Open Conference.

“Siguro kami ngayon, marami kaming error lalong lalo na sa blockings namin. Hindi magawa o ma-adapt sa sistema namin ngayon na pinag-aralan [in the] past few trainings namin,” Umandal said.

Cignal coughed out 21 errors in three sets of action, while PGJC-Navy committed 23 of their own.

A bulk of the miscues happened in the last two frames, where the Sea Lions even held the lead at some points before Umandal and Bugaoan steadied the ship down the stretch.

Bugaoan, the HD Spikers captain, also stressed the need to address their sloppy reception and wasteful service attempts.

“Well, obviously ‘yung first ball, ‘yung receive and also the service kasi doon kami laging sobrang daming unforced errors,” said Bugaoan, who had 11 points in the straight-set win.

“Nakakapagod obviously pero ‘yun nga, ‘yung unforced errors na sinasabi ng coaches namin na hindi dapat nangyayari kasi tine-training naman namin but unfortunately nangyari sa loob ng court.”

The HD Spikers aim to double down in training to further assimilate Cignal head coach Dexter Clamor’s system.

“Kailangan pa namin mag-stick sa sistema namin. Mag-stick lang kami as one kung anong pinapagawa sa amin,” Umandal said.

“Marami pa kami kailangan i-improve. Mas maganda nga nito day-by-day nagagawa namin siya. Pinipilit namin talaga na gawin ‘yung mga pinapagawa ng coaches namin.”

Cignal will have several days to whip its players into championship form before plunging back into action on April 3, Wednesday versus the Philippine Air Force.