Creamline completed a tournament sweep of the 2022 Premier Volleyball League Open Conference title via a 25-18, 15-25, 25-23, 25-16 Game 2 victory Friday night at the Ynares Sports Center in Antipolo City.
Alyssa Valdez and Tots Carlos anchored the Cool Smashers’ triumph to end the season unbeaten in eight games – three in the eliminations, one in the quarterfinals, two in the semis and two in the best-of-three finals affair including the 25-16, 23-25, 25-12, 32-30 Game 1 victory.
Valdez fired a service ace and a down-the-line spike to seal the victory before the huge and loud crowd for their fourth championship in six finals appearances.
It was redemption of sorts for the Cool Smashers, who lost to the Chery Tiggo Crossovers in last year’s finals held under a tournament bubble in Ilocos Norte.
“Hugot ko pa rin talaga yung last year’s finals kasi nagkulang kami. Ngayong conference sobrang driven namin na maipanalo na yung championship,” said Carlos, who poured all her 16 points in attacks.
Valdez credited their cohesion inside the court and the strategies they applied from their coaches.
“Since we’re familiar with each other, we just listen to what our coach has in store for us, yung mga strategies, in-apply talaga namin sa laro,” said Valdez, who was later awarded the Finals MVP after averaging 23 points in the finals following a 20-point output in Game 2.
The win wasn’t easy for Creamline. They fell into a maze of errors in the second set, giving up 10 points to Petro Gazz.
But the Cool Smashers slowly adjusted into the match, attacking on all angles despite the threatening entrance of Grethcel Soltones.
Soltones was not supposed to play after hurting her right ankle, but the hard-hitting spiker tried to reinforce the Angels to no avail.
Jema Galanza also stepped up for Creamline with 17 points even as Jia De Guzman converted 35 excellent sets on top of four points.
