PetroGazz, Creamline near championship showdown

CONTRIBUTED PHOTO

PetroGazz and Creamline encountered token opposition from their respective semifinal opponents on Wednesday night to close in on a finals encounter in the Premier Volleyball League Reinforced Conference at Filoil Flying V Centre.

With reliable foreign players Wilma Salas and Janisa Johnson once again delivering the goods, PetroGazz whipped BanKo Perlas, 25-19, 25-15, 21-25, 25-12.

Creamline also relied heavily on imports Kuttika Kaewpin and Aleoscar Blanco to assemble a 26-24, 25-21, 23-25, 25-20 conquest of PacificTown-Army earlier.

Lording it over all conference long, the Angels and the Cool Smashers took 1-0 leads and can wrap their best-of-three series up on Saturday and arrange a championship duel.

But that isn’t as easy as it sounds, or so says Creamline top player Alyssa Valdez.

“We can’t afford to be complacent, because PacificTown is a veteran team, they play very smart,” she said in Filipino. “So we have to be on our toes and play just as smart.”

It didn’t look like it, though, as Creamline had full control of the match despite a third-set hiccup.

Kaewpin scored 21 points, while Blanco helped with 19. Valdez chipped in 12 points.