PVL: Creamline stops Iriga-Navy, ends prelims atop standings

Creamline will head to the semifinals on a high note after defeating Iriga-Navy in straight sets, 25-21, 26-24, 25-23, in the Premier Volleyball League Reinforced Conference Wednesday at Filoil Flying V Centre.

The Cool Smashers ended their campaign in the preliminaries atop the ladder with a 6-1 record while the Lady Oragons remained at the bottom with a 1-6 card.

Alyssa Valdez topped all scorers with 19 points for Creamline but the Cool Smashers had to trudge through dangerous waters in the third set before stopping the upset-seeking Lady Oragons.

Iriga went tit-for-tat against the Cool Smashers and took a 23-22 lead after Reynalen Raterta scored on a service ace.

After a quick 23-23 tie, Valdez scored off the Lady Oragons’ block for the 24-23 match point and Risa Sato eventually finished things off with a quick kill.

“Iriga played well today, they had good blocking, good defense, good spiking, overall our opponents played well,” said Valdez in Filipino. “And definitely we’re not going to have any excuse that we put in different lineups, it’s part of our training so we have to get used to that.”

Creamline had to use substitute setter Alexine Cabanos in the second set after star setter Jia Morado got injured midway through the period with the Cool Smashers trailing 15-16.

Cabanos finished the match for Creamline with Morado, who finished with 16 excellent sets, out indefinitely for the Cool Smashers.

Jema Galanza had 14 points to add to Creamline’s cause while Kuttika Kaewpin put up 12.

Macy Ubben led Iriga-Navy with 17 points while Lauren Whyte had 15.