MANILA – Creamline Cool Smashers made it back to the finals of the Premier Volleyball League Invitational following a 25-23, 25-23, 25-17 beating of Kinh Bac-Bac Ninh of Vietnam in the semifinals on Tuesday night at the Philsports Arena in Pasig City.
With a 4-0 win-loss record, the defending champions Cool Smashers assured themselves of a finals slot regardless of the outcome of their final game against Kurashiki Ablaze of Japan on Friday night.
Julia Morado-de Guzman, who was hailed as the Player of the Game with 17 excellent sets, admitted that there were some struggles in the first two sets as it was the Cool Smashers’ first time to encounter a team from Vietnam.
“It’s our first time to go up against a team from Vietnam, so the first two (sets) were adjustment sets, like getting to know their spikers and attackers,” said Morado-de Guzman.
“We are happy to be able to clinch a finals seat but the job isn’t done yet. We still have to train and prepare since we still don’t know which team we would be facing (in the finals),” she added.
Diana Carlos top-scored for Creamline with 16 points, including 14 on attacks, while Alyssa Valdez and Jessica Galanza came through with 11 and 10 points, respectively, and Celine Domingo dominated the middle with four blocks for a total of eight points.
“The players responded sa mga pinagagawa namin kaya nasa finals kami. Pero di pa tapos ang goal, hopefully makuha namin kaya kailangan pang pag-trabahuan,” said Creamline coach Sherwin Meneses.
Nguyen Huong came away with 19 points while Le Xuan added 10 points and Nguyen Oanh made eight points before being carried out of the court as the Vietnamese bowed out of the finals with their third straight loss.
Meanwhile, the Ablaze crushed the championship aspirations of F2 Logistics Cargo Movers after scoring a 25-20, 25-22, 25-20 sweep. The Ablaza now has 3-0 record, while the Cargo Movers dropped to 1-3.
Tamaru Asaka led the way with 19 points, all on attacks, while Hikaora Akane added nine markers in the Ablaze win. Myla Pablo was the lone double-digit scorer for the Cargo Movers with 12./PN
