Alyssa Valdez and Jia Morado graciously accepted the end of Creamline's two-season Premier Volleyball League Open Conference reign at the hands of Chery Tiggo sisters Jaja Santiago and Dindin Santiago-Manabat.
The Cool Smashers failed to close out their two-set advantage in Game Three last Friday as the Santiago sisters and Crossovers pulled off an epic come-from-behind five-set victory to rule the maiden professional volleyball tournament in the country.
"They really deserve the win, pinaghirapan din talaga ng Chery Tiggo and it's for them, no excuses naman kami. We feel like we gave our all also and we're just really happy na nakaabot kami dito," said Valdez after the Cool Smashers settled for silver.
The six-time PVL Best Setter agreed.
"Si Jaja naman lagi naman siyang maasahan whether kami yung magkakampi sa court or kami yung magkalaban alam ko na pupuntos siya at pupuntos. She was really hard to stop talaga," said Morado.
"We could see yung passion din nilang magkapatid sa laro but we know na we gave them a good fight naman."
Valdez and Morado remained happy with their Ilocos Norte bubble experience despite settling for silver.
"Hindi 'man kami nakakuha ng gold, lahat ng experiences namin from this bubble more than just yung tunay na gold talaga so we're just really thankful for everything," Valdez said.
"No matter what happened, we gave it our all. We have to give it to Chery din naman, tinrabaho naman talaga nila even before they've been playing a lot of games," Morado said.
"We're just really grateful na we made it through the season, we made it without any injuries."
Creamline's dynamic duo said they will learn from this defeat and come back stronger in the second conference, tentatively set in October or November in Manila.
"I think moving forward marami kaming matututunan sa pangyayari na 'to so we really congratulate Chery Tiggo," Valdez said. "We're just really gonna siguro train pa rin, home workout pa rin tayo kasi hindi pa natin alam kung kailan babalik."
"There's always next time and there's always a time to get better," Morado added. (AL)
