CONTRIBUTED PHOTO
MANILA, Philippines—Creamline is one win away from a perfect conference.
Flexing its muscles against an overmatched PetroGazz, Creamline stormed to a 25-14, 25-22, 27-25 Wednesday night to take one step closer to claiming the Premier Volleyball League Open Conference title.
Alyssa Valdez powered the Cool Smashers who encountered token opposition from the Angels in Game 1 of their best-of-three finals series at Filoil Flying V Center.
Creamline can pick up the title and its 20th win in Saturday’s Game 2.
“Our mindset is to give it our all because this is the finals, we want to win it,” said Valdez. “I saw the sacrifice of my teammates and I wanted to play very well for them.”
Valdez missed five games due to a sprained ankle and her duties to the national team. But the Cool Smashers were stacked with league big stars it hardly mattered.
“We just want to be happy, happy in our game and be more consistent,” added Valdez, who finished with 19 points.
Just when PetroGazz was mounting an uprising, leading 22-20 in the third, Valdez hosed down its hopes, scoring three straight points, including back-to-back aces to give Creamline the lead 23-22.
But the Angels persisted with Kai Baloaloa and Jonah Sabete shoving them to set point twice only to lose the advantage each time by bungling their serves.
“In the second and third set, maybe we became complacent, you can’t avoid that,” said Valdez. “But the important thing is that everyone contributed towards the end.”
Jema Galanza slammed three straight attempts but only succeeded in landing the match-winning shot on her third try. She finished with 13 points.
Creamline trailed 9-15 in the second before Galanza and Risa Sato stormed with a 15-6 blitz to take the frame.