By Jean Malanum
MANILA – For his efficiency and versatile performance, Jude Garcia of Criss Cross earned the first-ever Spikers’ Turf Press Corps Player of the Week for the March 13 to 24 period.
Garcia, who returned to indoor volleyball after playing for the national beach volleyball team, emerged as the go-to guy for the unbeaten Criss Cross in the ongoing 2024 Spikers’ Turf Open Conference.
The three-time Southeast Asian Games bronze medalist averaged 15.0 points, 8.7 receptions, and 5.0 digs in three games for Criss Cross, which is tied with defending champion Cignal on top of the standings.
Last week, he had 12 attacks, five blocks, and one ace, and made eight excellent receptions in the King Crunchers’ 25-8, 25-22, 25-11 debut win over the Maverick Hard Hitters.
Garcia delivered 11 points, nine excellent receptions, and six excellent digs in the 25-18, 25-17, 25-17 win over VNS-Nasty on March 22. He finished with 16 points to go with nine receptions and seven digs in their 25-16, 25-10, 25-22 victory over RichMarc Sports 3B on March 24.
“Siguro nagpe-payoff lang yung binibigay kong 100 percent sa training. Kasi syempre galing ako sa beach volleyball, so kailangan kong ipakita talaga na eto ako. Hindi ako pwedeng mag-relax kasi may kailangan kaming makuha ngayong season (Maybe, the 100 percent I give to training is just paying off. Because, of course, I come from beach volleyball, so I have to really show that this is me. I can’t relax because we need to get something this season),” Garcia said.
“May konti pa akong adjustments at marami pa akong kailangan i-polish. Kailangan namin pagtuunan pa rin ng pansin yung mga simple mistakes na nangyayari sa loob ng court (I still have a few adjustments and I still need to polish a lot. We still need to focus on the simple mistakes that are happening inside the court),” he added.
Garcia defeated reigning MVP Jau Umandal (Cignal), Joeven Dela Vega (PGJC-Navy), and Francis Saura (D’Navigators) for the weekly honor given by scribes from broadsheets, tabloids, and online platforms covering the men’s club league, which also airs live at www.spikersturf.ph.
Meanwhile, Garcia said he will use the Holy Week break to assess their performance before facing D’Navigators on April 10, 6 p.m. at the Paco Arena.
“Maximize lang kung ano yung magandang ginagawa namin. Yung maliliit na bagay importante talaga kasi kailangan simple things doon mag-uumpisa yung magandang tinatakbo ng team. Kailangan one game at a time kasi may gusto kaming makuha this conference (Just maximize what we’re doing well. The small things are really important because the good showing of the team will start from simple things. We need to focus one game at a time because we want to win this conference),” he said. (PNA)
