Alyssa Valdez looks ahead with optimism after ‘roller-coaster’ 2024

Alyssa Valdez (center): I hope 2025 will be better. —MARLO CUETO/INQUIRER.net

Alyssa Valdez described the year that passed perfectly well.

“2024 for me was a roller-coaster ride,” Valdez, probably the most decorated, most loved volleyball player of the modern day, said. “As cliché as it is, that’s true.”

The Creamline captain had a hard time returning to peak form after being hounded by injuries throughout 2024. But through it all, she helped the Cool Smashers in extending their PVL dominance with a fourth straight All-Filipino crown before watching from the sidelines as they completed the league’s first-ever Grand Slam.

READ: PVL: Alyssa Valdez returns with renewed passion for volleyball

“I was able to play during the first few months [of the year], able also to get the championships,” she explained. “But the struggle also to return to 100 percent after an injury and now to end it on a high note and also to be able to play again, it really has been a roller coaster of emotions.”

Valdez was given limited minutes in last year’s All-Filipino before sitting out the next two import-laced conferences together with Tots Carlos because of knee injuries.

But the good thing was that the rest of the Cool Smashers ably filled the gaps left by the two former MVPs, and another one by Jema Galanza, who had to answer the call of national duty, as Creamline completed a Triple Crown sweep.

READ: PVL: Alyssa Valdez all praises for Creamline teammates, system

“I am just very blessed, and if I may say, this has been a learning curve for me [because] I realized that age is really just a number,” the 31-year-old Valdez said. “But definitely, I am learning so much at this point in my career.”

Still the leader

Alyssa Valdez on the sidelines for the Creamline Cool Smashers in the PVL Reinforced Conference. –MARLO CUETO/INQUIRER.net

After missing the Reinforced and Invitational Conferences, Valdez made her return this season and is still Creamline’s team leader, with the Cool Smashers entering the new year as the only undefeated team when the All-Filipino resumes on Jan. 18.

The team did a lot of traveling during the holiday break, one that it needed especially after getting a scare from young ZUS Coffee in their final game of the year.

“It’s good to experience [a scare] early [in the tournament]so we get to see what we need to fix,” Valdez said of the five-set marathon against the Thunderbelles. “My teammates and the coaches are not complacent.

“We’ll really prepare more for the long tournament and focus on what we need to do,” Valdez said. “One game at a time, and like against ZUS Coffee, one point at a time.”

Valdez hopes that with still two weeks before actual games are again played, she would claw closer to being 100 percent and return to being the feared hitter of old.

“I am really here to hopefully be back a hundred percent to help the team. That’s my wish, not just for myself, but also for all the athletes going through injuries,” she said. “I hope 2025 will be better.”