JUDE Garcia showed no signs of rust in his return to indoor volleyball, anchoring Criss Cross’ unbeaten start in the 2024 Spikers’ Turf Open Conference.
Garcia, who spent the past years playing for the Philippine men’s beach volleyball team, emerged as the go-to-guy for the new Spikers’ Turf squad with averages of 15.0 points, 8.7 receptions, and 5.0 digs in the King Crunchers’ 3-0 start that allowed them to tie defending champion Cignal at the top spot.
The three-time Southeast Asian Games bronze medalist delivered 18 points on 12 attacks, five blocks, and one ace laced with eight excellent receptions in Criss Cross’ rousing 25-8, 25-22, 25-11 debut win over Maverick last week.
Garcia then came up with an all-around effort of 11 points, nine excellent receptions, and six excellent digs in the 25-18, 25-17, 25-17 victory over VNS-Nasty last Friday before leading the charge in the 25-16, 25-10, 25-22 triumph against RichMarc Sports 3B with 16 points, nine excellent receptions, and seven excellent digs on Sunday.
For his efficiency and versatile performance, Garcia earned the first-ever Spikers’ Turf Press Corps Player of the Week for the period of March 13 to 24 in the men’s volleyball league organized by Sports Vision.
“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,” said Garcia, who ranked inside the top 10 of all but the setting category after two weeks’ worth of action.
“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,” he added.
Garcia edged reigning MVP Jau Umandal of Cignal, Joeven Dela Vega of PGJC-Navy, and Francis Saura of the 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 Despite the King Crunchers’ impressive start, the high-leaping outside hitter is still far from satisfied.
Garcia wants to use the Holy Week break to assess their performance and focus on fixing their lapses before they head back to action against the D’Navigators on April 10, 6:00 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 maguumpisa yung magandang tinatakbo ng team. Kailangan one game at a time kasi may gusto kaming makuha this conference.”