Creamline’s title journey begins with loss, ends with new heroes

Despite being the franchise with the most PVL titles, Creamline seemed to struggle in the Reinforced Conference.

In this season’s tournament, it seemed that a second title of the import-fueled event was questionable following an opening-game 16-25, 25-22, 24-26, 25-19, 15-12 defeat to PLDT, the first time in a while that the Cool Smashers lost their first match of a conference.

But that’s what it took to fire up the team.

“When we lost to PLDT in our first game, I told myself that our conference will not be defined by our first loss,” Bernadeth Pons said late Wednesday night, after she powered the Cool Smashers to a dominant 25-15, 25-23, 25-17 decision over Akari in the one-game final for this year’s Reinforced crown.

Creamline coach Sherwin Meneses called the conquest one of the sweetest for the franchise because it accomplished the feat despite the absence of key players Alyssa Valdez, Tots Carlos and Jema Galanza the whole tournament.

But it was precisely those setbacks that Creamline got together to make a golden run.

“[Before the conference] actually, we were readied by the coaches mentally. [Meneses] said that whoever is left here should be ready and we should not look for those who aren’t here,” Pons said.

“There are times that we have a hard time during training and coach says ‘who else are you waiting for [to perform]?’ so that was one of our wake-up calls that [reminded us] ‘oh, right, we are the only ones left here so we need to do the extra work on everything,” Pons added.

Pons, Michele Gumabao and Erica Staunton filled in the scoring roles vacated by the absent stars and helped Creamline to a 6-2 record in the preliminaries and also spearheaded the Cool Smashers as they survived the win-or-go-home quarterfinals and the semifinals.

Competitive practices

An impressive feat, except that on the opposite side of the no-tomorrow finals was a Chargers team that had been unbeaten entering the title duel and was motivated by the thought of finally nailing a first franchise championship.

The Chargers, behind its own trio of Ivy Lacsina, Grethcel Soltones and import Oly Okaro, were challenged by 10 other teams and none of them were able to stop a hungry and revamped Akari.

But Creamline’s goal remained clear. It wasn’t just getting to the final. It was winning a ninth crown.

“Every day in training, it feels like we are playing a real game because everyone is so competitive,” Pons, who won a first-ever Conference and Finals MVP in her first Reinforced title, said.

That competitiveness in practice seamlessly translated into wins.

The Cool Smashers halted the Chargers’ 10-game run to annex a ninth trophy. The streak stopping and historic championship was another testament to the vaunted system of Meneses, who won his first Reinforcement crown since being at the helm in 2022.

“I think its one of the best traits of the team because we get challenged to find solutions to different situations because everyone is so competitive, in a healthy way,” Pons said.