Bernadeth Pons is welcomed by the Creamline Cool Smashers indoor volleyball team. -MICHELE GUMABAO/INSTAGRAM
MANILA, Philippines — Bernadeth Pons is set to make her professional indoor volleyball debut with the Creamline Cool Smashers in the 2023 Premier Volleyball League Invitational Conference.
After focusing on beach volleyball for the past three years, Creamline coach Sherwin Meneses revealed to Inquirer Sports that the former Far Eastern University star suit up for the Cool Smashers in the upcoming midseason conference starting on June 29.
“Yes she will play this coming PVL,” said Meneses in Filipino.
Opposite spiker Michele Gumabao on Friday posted an Instagram story of the Cool Smashers singing a welcome song for Pons and giving her a cake during their team lunch.
Pons last saw action for Petron in the 2019 Philippine Superliga before she decided to focus on beach volleyball with her partner Sisi Rondina.
Bernadeth Pons during his stint with Petron in the PSL. Photo by Tristan Tamayo/INQUIRER.net
Pons and Rondina won two consecutive bronze medals in the 2019 Southeast Asian Games in Subic and last year’s biennial meet in Vietnam.
The pair were separated in the 32nd edition in Cambodia as Pons teamed up with Dij Rodriguez and Rondina partnered with Jovelyn Gonzaga only to miss the podium this year.
The tandem called SiPons represented Creamline in local and international beach volleyball tournaments for the past years.
Pons also has had an impressive indoor stint, playing five years for the FEU Lady Tamaraws with a silver medal finish in Season 80 last 2018 and winning a couple of championships with Petron in the PSL.
The 26-year-old spiker will boost the wing spiker rotation of the Meneses-coached Creamline as she joins three-time PVL MVPs Tots Carlos and Alyssa Valdez, Jema Galanza, and Michele Gumabao.
Creamline, which ruled the All-Filipino Conference amid the absence of the injured Valdez, is eyeing its second straight crown this season and back-to-back Invitationals title reign.