BRYAN Bagunas added another championship to his growing collection overseas.
The Alas Pilipinas Men captain helped Osaka Bluteon complete its revenge tour by dethroning defending champion Suntory Sunbirds in the rubber match of the 2025-26 Japan SV.League men’s finals on Sunday.
READ: Alyssa Solomon caps Japan SV.League debut with silver for Osaka
This becomes Bagunas’ third title abroad and his first in Japan in his debut campaign, having won back-to-back titles in Taiwan’s Top Volleyball League with Win Streak, where he also won MVP honors back in their 2022-23 championship season.
He now joins fellow National University great Jaja Santiago (Sachi Minowa) as the only Filipinos to win a championship in the top flight of Japanese club volleyball, with the latter winning the 2024-25 women's volleyball title with her former team Osaka Marvelous.
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Bagunas saw limited action in the championship series, only appearing in Game 1 and contributing two attack points off the bench, though Bluteon dropped the opener in four sets, 24-26, 25-22, 16-25, 23-25.
Facing a must-win situation in Game 2, Bluteon fought back and survived a grueling five-set battle, 13-25, 25-23, 25-22, 20-25, 15-19, to force a rubber match.
But unlike the first two tightly contested matches, Osaka left little doubt in the finale.
Bluteon turned the title decider into a mismatch, sweeping the defending champions, 25-22, 25-20, 25-18, to finally get payback after losing to the same team in last year's finals.
The breakthrough also marked Bluteon's first title since the SV.League rebrand in 2024 and its seventh overall crown in Japan’s top-flight men’s volleyball competition.
Back in April, Bagunas’ fellow former National U standout Alyssa Solomon also came close to joining the list of Filipino champions in Japan.
The opposite hitter helped Osaka Marvelous reach the 2025-26 SV.League women’s finals before settling for silver after dropping the title series in two games to Saga Hisamitsu Springs.
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