By Leobert Julian A. de la Peña
The Creamline Cool Smashers just claimed its second-straight grand finals seat after sweeping the foreign guest squad Kinh Bac-Bac Ninh, 25-23, 25-23, 25-17, during the ongoing Premier Volleyball League (PVL) Invitational Conference last July 25, 2023, held at the Philsports Arena.
With the huge victory, the Cool Smashers will be heading to the championship stage without a single loss and will have the opportunity to sweep the round-robin semis if they take down Kurashiki on Friday.
Creamline showed nerves of steel after the Vietnamese team posed a lot of threat in the first two sets when they were able to go toe-to-toe with the Cool Smashers in the attacking department.
However, after former Most Valuable Player (MVP) Tots Carlos flipped the switch and took over midway through the opening set, the Cool Smashers suddenly separated themselves from the visiting team.
The Carlos-led assault helped Creamline break the close gap in the first set and replicated her clutch stretch during the nip-and-tuck second frame.
With Kinh Bac close to equalizing the game at 1-all after scoring consecutive drop balls that negated Creamline’s middle blocking, Carlos sent in two huge bombs that paved the way for another conversion for a 2-0 lead.
It was then all Creamline in the last set as the duo of Alyssa Valdez and Ced Domingo proved to be too much for Kinh Bac.
The star duo showed an efficient two-way performance after anchoring Creamline’s middle blocking while paying off the trust of their setter Jia Morado-De Guzman.
De Guzman fed Valdez and Domingo in the crucial final stretch of the third and tallied a total of 17 excellent sets in just three frames.
Carlos led the team in scoring with a 16-point output built from 14 successful attacks and two blocks while Valdez and Domingo combined for 22 markers.
