PVL: Jia De Guzman finds familiar yet different feel in Finals return

Creamline Cool Smashers’ Jia de Guzman during the 2026 PVL All-Filipino Conference Finals Game 1 vs Cignal Super Spikers. –MARLO CUETP/INQUIRER.net

MANILA, Philippines — Jia De Guzman savored her return to the Premier Volleyball League Finals, three years since she last played on the big stage of the country’s pro league.

Back in familiar territory, De Guzman dished out 22 excellent sets and scored four points, helping Creamline sweep Cignal,  25-22, 25-18, 25-16, in Game 1 of the best-of-three All-Filipino Conference finals on Tuesday in front of 8,183 fans at Smart Araneta Coliseum.

The eight-time PVL Best Setter hardly missed a beat despite coming from her two-season stint in Japan SV.League with the Denso AiryBees and Alas Pilipinas.

“I think ‘familiar’ is the better word for it. A lot of us were talking before the game about what the feeling is coming into today’s game. Every championship is different, but it is familiar territory for us because we’ve had experiences before,” said De Guzman, who last played in the 2023 Invitational final when they fell to Kurashiki Ablaze in five sets.

WATCH: Jia De Guzman on her comeback to the PVL Finals. #PVL2026 | @LanceAgcaoilINQ

•⁠ ⁠Follow our live updates here: https://t.co/1Q9w0gyouc pic.twitter.com/QzcQsHquxd

— INQUIRER Sports (@inquirersports) April 21, 2026

“But we know after this Game 1 is different from Game 2, and we have to do our best to close out as much as possible because we know Cignal is a good team. They gave us a hard time in the whole conference.”

De Guzman, a four-time Finals MVP, was determined to bounce back against Cignal, which sent them to do-or-die games twice in the Play-In and semifinals round.

“We know what happened in the regular round. Tapos na yun. The finals are a different story. And we did our best to prepare, to work with the strengths of Creamline, and believe that we can execute the best way we can coming into this game. And we’re thankful that we were very focused from start to finish,” she said.

With Creamline within a win away from bringing back the All-Filipino supremacy and capturing the 11th crown, De Guzman said the team is cautiously optimistic heading to Game 2.

“We’re optimistic. We’re thankful that the team is slowly coming together. We’re peaking at the right time. But Game 2 will be a different kind of fight. For now, the instruction is to rest and recover tonight, then go back to training tomorrow. No matter the result today, we stay focused,” said De Guzman.