After suffering its first loss in the 2025 Spikers’ Turf Invitational Conference, Criss Cross roared back with authority, dismantling ProVolley Academy in straight sets, 25-9, 25-9, 25-13, to revive its Finals hopes on Monday at the Filoil EcoOil Centre in San Juan.
The King Crunchers improved to 2-1 in the round-robin semifinals of the league organized by Sports Vision and supported by Alpha Insurance, Premiere EMS, Buffalo’s Wings N’ Things, Black Mamba, and Arena Plus, moving into solo third place behind unbeaten Savouge Aesthetics and Kindai University.
Criss Cross will aim to extend its momentum tomorrow at the Ynares Center Montalban in Rizal, taking on 3-0 Savouge in the 5 p.m. main game.
“We saw ‘yung mga pagkukulang namin against Kindai, and the stuff we can improve on,” said King Crunchers middle blocker Gian Glorioso. “This game, we put those adjustments in place and tried to play everybody. The experience is already there for the next games.”
Head coach Tai Bundit was able to maximize his roster against the youthful Aussies, with contributions from every player fueling the team’s swift triumph.
Glorioso turned in his best performance yet after recovering from a back injury, while Noel Kampton, Ysay Marasigan, Chu Njigha, and the rest of the King Crunchers all made their presence felt.
Even as ProVolley Academy closed the gap to 12-17 with a block by Mikey Strbac on Rex Intal, Criss Cross quickly regained control. Francis Saura steadied the offense, putting Intal on the service line, while Njigha and Saura combined for the final points to seal the 24-12 run en route to a dominant bounce-back victory after last Saturday’s loss to Kindai University.
“‘Yung mindset namin is to give ProVolley ‘yung match na, kahit sino man ang kalaban, the biggest respect that we can give is to give our best,” added Glorioso.
ProVolley Academy (0-3) will face fellow winless UST-Gameville tomorrow at 3 p.m., as both teams look to stay alive in the battle for third place. Kindai University and Cignal will open the Rizal triple-header at 1 p.m.
All games are broadcast live on One Sports and One Sports+, as well as on the Pilipinas Live app, which offers video-on-demand options. Full coverage is also available via spikersturf.ph.
