The 2019 Spikers’ Turf season was indeed a memorable one.
During the first conference, the league served as the training ground of the Philippine men’s national volleyball team that won a historical silver medal in the 30th Southeast Asian Games in Manila.
The second conference, meanwhile, had the biggest number of participants in Spikers’ Turf history with a total of 24 teams, composed of clubs and various UAAP and NCAA squads, joining the league’s last tournament before the COVID-19 pandemic put the entire sporting world at a stop.
Rebisco-PH joins fray
The Cignal HD Spikers and the Philippine Air Force Jet Spikers were clear cuts above the 12-team field in the Reinforced Conference. Both squads posted identical 10-1 standings in the preliminaries to finish at the top and second seed, respectively.
PLDT, on the other hand, sealed the third seed while the Nationals placed fourth. However, the latter was only a guest team in the tourney which meant that the Sta. Elena-backed National University, who finished fifth, took the final spot in the playoffs.
The HD Spikers survived a three-game semis series against the young Ball Hammers while the Jet Spikers did the same against the Power Hitters which set up a finals date between the rival squads.
In a rematch of the 2018 Reinforced Conference finale, Cignal claimed sweet revenge against the defending champions, sweeping the best-of-three finals to claim its fourth league title and end a two-year title drought.
Marck Espejo of the HD Spikers was named the Finals MVP after averaging 23.5 points and 21 excellent receptions per game while the Jet Spikers’ Ran Abdilla took home the Conference MVP award.
Record Number of Teams
A total of 24 teams took part in Spikers’ Turf’s season-ending conference. But in the end, it was still Cignal who stood out on top after a dominant 10-0 sweep of the tournament en route to its second consecutive crown.
Espejo proved that he is still one of the deadliest spikers in the Philippines after averaging 38 points per game in the HD Spikers’ 2-0 sweep of Air Force in the finals. The five-time UAAP also shattered the Spikers’ Turf scoring record with a 43-point outing in Game Two which eclipsed Howard Mojica’s 41 back in 2015.
Cignal swept the entire Group A to clinch a twice-to-beat incentive in the quarterfinals. It turns out, the HD Spikers do not need it at all as they took care of Ateneo swiftly to move up in the semifinals where they booted out Perpetual.
The HD Spikers once again faced the Jet Spikers and yielded the same result for their second consecutive title of the season and their fifth overall.
