Jude Garcia continued to raise the bar in the Spikers’ Turf with his fourth MVP plum.
Garcia extended his MVP reign to four consecutive conferences after leading Criss Cross to its first-ever championship following a thrilling win over Japan’s Kindai University, 25-15, 25-21, 23-25, 23-25, 22-20, in a winner-take-all final on Saturday at FilOil EcoOil Centre in San Juan City.
The 27-year-old Garcia unleashed 35 points on a 34-of-65 attacking clip in a classic championship match.
‘This is the sweetest MVP award I’ve ever received, because in all my past MVPs, we ended up losing,’ Garcia said in Filipino. ‘My teammates didn’t give up on me, the coaching staff didn’t give up on me, and the management kept lifting me up throughout the game.’
Garcia, the league’s first-ever Season MVP, was the best scorer with 113 points from 104 kills, six blocks, and three aces to also win the Best Outside Spiker award.
The Far Eastern University product was the third-best spiker with 49.29% attack efficiency, eighth-best server with 0.14 aces per set, and also the ninth-best digger with 1.24 digs per set.
Criss Cross’ Adrian Villados won his first Best Setter award and emerged as the Finals MVP after dishing out 34 excellent sets in the winner-take-all.
He normed with 6.05 excellent sets per frame.
‘I’m really happy because we finally got the championship. The individual awards are just a bonus. All the sacrifices we made-everything we worked for, really paid off,’ Villados said.
Jau Umandal of Cignal won his third Best Outside Spiker award. He was the third-best scorer with 90 points, second-best attacker with a 49.68% attack rate, fifth-best server with 0.17 aces per set, and fifth-best blocker with 0.56 blocks per set.
Japan’s Ryutaro Aun bagged the Best Opposite Spiker. He was the second-best scorer with 94 points and top spiker with 53.33% efficiency and 10th best blocker with 0.33 blocks per game.
Another awardee from Kindai was Yuito Kose,n winning the Best Libero, ending up the second best digger with 2.39 digs per set and second in receiving with 56.98% efficiency.
The Best Middle Blockers were Poy Colinares of the King Crunchers and Giles Torres of Savouge Aesthetics Spin Doctors, ending up as No.2 and 3 Best Blockers with 0.71 and 0.63 blocks per set, respectively.