The Cignal Super Spikers shook off a tough five-set defeat to the Criss Cross King Crunchers by venting their ire on the UST-Gameville Golden Spikers, a team that the defending champions lost to in the Spikers' Turf preliminaries.
Jau Umandal showed little mercy to his alma mater, exploding for 26 points to power Cignal to a resounding bounce-back win over UST-Gameville, 25-17, 25-13, 26-24, in the 2025 Spikers’ Turf Invitational Conference semifinals on Saturday at the Filoil EcoOil Centre.
Umandal delivered 22 attacks, two kill blocks and two aces, steering the Super Spikers to victory just a day after a tough five-set loss to rival Criss Cross. The win evened their round-robin semis record at 1-1.
“Yesterday’s game was a tough loss for us,” said Cignal head coach Dexter Clamor. “Especially the first set. Ang bigat ng pagkatalo namin kahapon. Even last night, most of us couldn’t sleep.”
Umandal also contributed six excellent receptions.
The victory served as a measure of revenge for Cignal, which had dropped one of its two elimination-round losses to UST-Gameville in the tournament organized by Sports Vision and backed by Alpha Insurance, Premiere EMS, Buffalo’s Wings N’ Things, Arena Plus and Black Mamba.
After UST-Gameville tied the third set at 24, Umandal fired one off the block before Nas Gwaza unleashed a booming ace – his lone point of the match – to seal Cignal’s first semifinals win after an hour and 18 minutes.
“Nag-viewing pa kami bago kami pumunta dito sa game. Wala naman kaming ibang pwedeng gawin kundi mag-move forward eh. Focus on the next game, focus oon the next ball, be more specific kung anong kailangan naming gawin inside the court,” said Clamor.
Steven Rotter chipped in nine points, while Jared Schnake and team captain JP Bugaoan contributed six and five, respectively. Cian Silang orchestrated the offense with 18 excellent sets, while former UST libero Van Prudenciado tallied 14 excellent receptions and five digs.
Cignal will shoot for back-to-back wins against Savouge on Monday at 3 p.m., still at Filoil EcoOil Centre.
Meanwhile, UST-Gameville dropped to 0-2, tying ProVolley Academy of Australia. Gboy De Vega was the lone double-digit scorer for the Golden Spikers with 15 points and 18 excellent receptions, while Sherwin Umandal added eight.
Games are aired live on One Sports and One Sports+, with video-on-demand access via the Pilipinas Live app. Matches are also streamed on spikersturf.ph.