Jude Garcia continues to put Criss Cross on the pedestal as it jumpstarted its semifinals campaign on a high note in the Spikers’ Turf Open Conference.

The league’s two-time Most Valuable Player consistently brought his A-game, keeping the King Crunchers unscathed with a huge 25-22, 25-18, 25-18 victory over Savouge in the opener of the round-robin semifinals on Sunday at the Ynares Sports Arena in Pasig City.

In a pair of elimination round games, the King Crunchers struggled to keep the Spin Doctors at bay, needing to escape two five-set duels. But this time, Garcia hammered 12 points to make quick work of last year’s Invitational Conference bronze medalist.

“We really focused on our service receive and our blocking as well as our defense. As we can see, Savouge really prepared for us so we worked hard to get every point,” Garcia said.

Criss Cross remained unbeaten in 11 games as the former beach volleyball standout also led the King Crunchers’ 10-game elimination round sweep with a game-high 16 points on top of 11 receptions and seven digs to tow the PGJC-Navy Sealions, 25-18, 25-17, 25-19, on Wednesday at the Rizal Memorial Coliseum.

‘This is huge for us. Of course, we already know that we are banking on Espejo but we should not be relaxing. We should stay focused and make sure to deliver regardless of whoever Coach Tai (Bundit) deploys. We should always give our 100 percent.’

For his valuable contributions that kept his team unbeaten, Garcia was named as the Spikers’ Turf Press Corps Player of the Week presented by Pilipinas Live for the duration of 19 to 23 March.

The high-leaping outside spiker beat Cignal’s Louie Ramirez and Savouge’s Mark Calado for the weekly citation.

Seemingly cruising throughout the competition, the King Crunchers received one more piece to their redemption run as Marck Espejo played his first game this conference against the Spin Doctors after finishing his stint in the Japan V.League with Kubota Spears.

Despite the team getting even more stacked, Garcia warned his team about possibly falling into complacency as Criss Cross fell short to Cignal in the last two Spikers’ Turf finals.

“This is huge for us. Of course, we already know that we are banking on Espejo but we should not be relaxing. We should stay focused and make sure to deliver regardless of whoever Coach Tai (Bundit) deploys. We should always give our 100 percent,” Garcia said.

Criss Cross eyes its third straight finals appearance when it resumes its semis campaign against VNS-Laticrete on Wednesday before another rematch against Cignal on Sunday both at the Rizal Memorial Coliseum.