Creamline cranked up its offense in the stretch to defuse UAI-Army, 25-12, 25-18, 23-25, 25-23, and rebuild some kind of momentum for its grand slam drive in the Premier Volleyball League Reinforced Conference at the Smart Araneta Coliseum on Saturday.
The Cool Smashers battled back from an early eight-point (2-10) deficit in the fourth but blew a 21-17 lead before pulling through behind Ced Domingo and Jema Galanza in a big windup aided by Army import Laura Condotta’s costly attack error.
“In this conference, you can never tell how it’s going to be because of the imports. They contribute every game, especially in offense. All imports are tough to contain and we just have to improve in our next game,” said Creamline coach Sherwin Meneses after guiding the Cool Smashers to the four-set win against a team heading to a winless campaign in the season-ending conference.
Yeliz Basa fired 18 points while sitting out early in the fourth when Meneses opted for an all-Filipino crew while Domingo flashed another dominating performance in the middle off Jia de Guzman’s superb playmaking skills to finish with 16 markers.
Galanza also rammed in a 14-hit game, the last so stinging it bounced off the arm of the Army libero and out of the court which Jovelyn Gonzaga chased and tried to save, to no avail as Creamline notched its sixth win coming off a hard loss to F2 Logistics that saw the Open Conference and Invitational champions blow a 2-0 set lead.
The Cool Smashers will close out their elims campaign against the Choco Mucho Flying Titans on Thursday at the Mall of Asia Arena.
Down and out, the Lady Troopers still gave it all in the third set, catching the Cool Smashers off guard early on before scrambling for a win on a Condotta hit and a successful challenge off a Tots Carlos’ block touch.
They looked headed to forcing a decider after Condotta scored on a through-the-block hit against Domingo that made it 23-22 but the former FEU stalwart scored on a quick attack and the Cool Smashers moved at match point on a Condotta mishit before Galanza closed out the match with that kill off a good first ball and a pass.
Carlos ended up with seven points while Alyssa Valdez put in a quiet five-point game, both in a pair of three-set outings for two of the team's premier players.
Condotta finished with 20 points while Nene Bautista stepped up to fire 12 hits and Gonzaga added 10 points for the Lady Troopers, who fell to 0-7.
Despite being dragged to a four-set duel, Creamline dominated in all departments, coming through with 61 attack points against Army’s 17 and finishing with seven blocks and eight aces against the Troopers four and five, respectively.
