JP Bugaoan. Photo from Spikers’ Turf
MANILA, Philippines — Cignal opened its title-redemption quest with a rousing 25-19, 25-18, 25-17 victory over Sta. Rosa in the 2023 Spikers’ Turf Open Conference on Friday at Paco Arena.
Coming off a runner-up finish last year after getting dethroned by National University, the HD Spikers proved that anyone from their team can deliver as coach Dexter Clamor had the luxury of fielding all his wards and tried different rotations and combinations.
JP Bugaoan stood out with 15 points, hitting 10 of his 16 spike attempts and nailing five of Cignal’s 11 blocks to send Sta. Rosa to its second straight loss in just one hour and 22 minutes.
Cignal star Marck Espejo only scored six points, playing only in the first two sets. But the other HD Spikers delivered with Wendel Miguel chipping in eight points with an efficient 6-of-10 attacking clip in the first two sets, while substitute Gadpray Aresgado checked in the second set but made his presence felt with five markers.
The HD Spikers’ new setter EJ Casana had a convincing debut dishing out 13 excellent sets and firing three aces to finish with four points, as Ysay Marasigan, Alfred Valbuena, and Peter Torres added five markers each in their first assignment of the season.
Cignal coach Clamor lauded all his scoring players for contributing at least a point but he wants to address their lapses right away after committing 21 errors in the match.
“We had a lot of unforced errors, service errors to be specific. I think they are still adjusting to the atmosphere because the atmosphere here in the game is different from the training,” Clamor said in Filipino. “But it’s good to see from my team that anyone can deliver and perform whoever checks in the court.”
“We will be better for the next games and we will work out our lapses from this game,” he added.
The City Lions slid to a 0-2 record, coming off a four-set loss to Imus last Sunday.
No one from Sta. Rosa scored in double figures with Anrie Bakil and substitute spiker Kevin Montemayor leading the way with nine points each.