Jau Umandal of Cignal HD soars for a spike against D'Navigators in the 2024 Spikers' Turf Open Conference at Ynares Sports Arena in Pasig City, April 17, 2024. PVL Media

MANILA -- Jau Umandal delivered his best performance of the 2024 Spikers' Turf Open Conference to help the Cignal HD Spikers remain perfect in the tournament.

Without ace spiker Bryan Bagunas, Umandal fired a career-best 36 points in the HD Spikers' hard-earned 21-25, 25-18, 20-25, 25-19, 15-7 victory over the D'Navigators on Wednesday night at the Ynares Sports Arena in Pasig.

The win secured Cignal HD's place in the semifinals of the tournament. They also improved to 6-0.

Bagunas has flown back to Taiwan to honor a commitment with Win Streak to play in an All-Star Game. In his absence, the HD Spikers relied on the red-hot Umandal, who responded with 32 attack points along with three kill blocks and an ace. He also had 10 excellent receptions and six digs.

"Di ko expected na aabot ako sa ganito kataas. 'Di kami nanalo dahil lang sakin, dahil sa buong team. So parang 'di ko siya inisip, gusto ko lang talaga makatulong sa team," said Umandal.

The HD Spikers crawled back from yet another 1-2 set deficit then seized control in the decisive fifth set to overpower the D'Navigators, racing to a 12-5 advantage on an Umandal drop.

The D'Navigators countered with back-to-back points but the HD Spikers cruised to victory as they capitalized on their opponents' sloppy plays, closing out the two-hour, nine-minute contest with a 3-0 run, the last two off their rivals' attack errors.

"Pagod eh, parang hindi pa naka-recover doon sa last game namin sa Criss Cross. So, siguro it's time to give them a break muna. Kailangan talaga nila magpahinga," said Cignal coach Dexter Clamor.

No other player reached double-digit outputs for Cignal with Wendel Miguel and JP Bugaoan finishing with nine and six points, respectively.

Cian Silang, who replaced EJ Casana in the starting lineup, tossed 24 excellent sets and contributed two points, while Vince Lorenzo and Sandy Montero collected 20 excellent receptions and 11 excellent digs, respectively. 

Cignal goes for win No. 7 against VNS-Nasty on April 24 before facing Maverick on April 26.

The D'Navigators absorbed their second straight loss to drop to 4-2, enabling a surging Navy to seize second spot at 5-1.

Francis Saura led the D'Navigators with 19 points while Edward Camposano and Deanne De Pedro contributed 17 and 12 points, respectively.

The D'Navigators expect to snap their skid as they play the also-ran  side, also on Wednesday.

In the first game of the double-header, Savouge Aesthetics dismantled RichMarc Sports 3B, 25-15, 25-21, 25-11. Save for a tight second set skirmish, the Spin Doctors dominated the Elite Spikers in the 74-minute match, nailing their second consecutive victory and leveling their slate at 3-3 for fifth spot in the standings.

Middle blockers John Diwa and Charlee Magpayo took charge in the lopsided victory with the former scoring a game-high 12 points on nine attacks and three blocks and the latter finishing with 10 points on five attacks, three kill blocks and two aces.

Norwel Sanama and Sherwin Caritativo also made significant contributions with the former tallying eight points, all from attacks, and the latter Caritativo adding eight points along with five excellent receptions.

Rey Taneo orchestrated Savouge's balanced offensive strategy with 17 excellent sets and contributed two points while Rikko Marmetto showed solid defense with 11 excellent receptions.

Meanwhile, Kurl Rosete paced RichMarc with 10 points while Kernel Ipulan scored eight points in the first two sets.