What was supposed to be a classic battle to the finish turned into a cruise for Creamline, which crushed a Pocari-Air Force squad missing its key player, 25-15, 25-18, 25-16, Friday to reach the Premier Volleyball League Season 2 Reinforced Conference at Filoil Flying V Centre.
Creamline will go up against PayMaya, which took a much more difficult route executing a dramatic comeback to outlast BanKo Perlas, 22-25, 14-25, 25-14, 25-23, 15-12, in Game 3 of their semifinal duel.
Tess Rountree banged in 35 points for PayMaya, countering Lakia Bright’s rousing 41-point performance for the Perlas Spikers.
Perlas and Pocari will fight for third place also on Sunday.
Alyssa Valdez and Thai Kuttika Kaewpin had 15 points each as the top-seeded Cool Smashers came back from a 0-1 series deficit to clinch a championship berth via sudden death.
Pocari was without two-way star Myla Pablo, the team’s vaunted hitter who also does a good job covering the floor on defense. Pablo hurt her back during pregame warmups.