It boiled down to the last serve – and after a brief review of the challenge – Kurashiki Ablaze whooped it up as gold confetti rained down the court, officially claiming the hotly-disputed Premier Volleyball League Invitational Conference crown via a 19-25, 25-23, 25-19, 20-25, 15-13 decision over Creamline at the Philsports Arena in Pasig on Sunday night.
The Japanese were as stunned as the raucous hometown crowd numbering to 8,223 as they completed an improbable six-game sweep of their first overseas campaign against the country’s best, capped by back-to-back victories over the league’s winningest squad.
And it came in the form of an epic five-set victory in a duel of power, styles and resiliency and in the end –heart and desire – as the Ablaze pulled through in the decider that was tight and furious throughout, overcoming a 12-13 deficit by winning the last three points.
The Cool Smashers forced the fifth set with a big finish in the fourth and looked headed to getting back at the Japanese, who beat them, 25-20, 25-21, 18-25, 25-14, in a non-bearing match closing out the semis phase Friday and staying on course of their grand slam drive.
But after grabbing an 8-6 lead on an Asaka Tamaru error, Creamline yielded the next three points as Kurashiki rallied behind the gutsy Yukino Yano and Asaka to post the fifth lead change in the set that also featured 10 deadlocks.
Though Michele Gumabao, stepping up for Alyssa Valdez who missed the last two sets on a slight injury, put Creamline back on top on back-to-back hits, the Japanese scored five of the last seven points, capped by Saki Tanabe’s hit and Tamaru’s serve that looked long but dropped just right at the baseline, ending the thrilling two-hour, 32-minute encounter, the 11th match that went the distance in the mid-season conference of the league organized by Sports Vision.
Setter and skipper Kyoka Ohshima, who normed 23 points in the semis, took the Finals MVP trophy on a 19-excellent set performance while finishing with five points, putting to naught counterpart Jia de Guzman’s 33-excellent set effort.
Ohshima also upstaged Asaka for the top honors as the latter matched her 29-point game in launching their campaign with a four-set victory over Kinh Bac-Bac Ninh of Vietnam at the start of the semis.
Akane Hiraoka added 14 markers while Yano and Miho Kawamura matched 11-hit outputs and Saki Tanabe finished with 10 points for the visiting squad, which stopped Creamline’s title run to six in nine championship appearances.
Tots Carlos nearly neutralized Asaka’s production with 27 points while Ced Domingo and Jema Galanza came up with 20 and 18 points, respectively, and Valdez settled for six points in three sets.
Meanwhile, Cignal Ces Molina bagged her first MVP trophy after a brilliant conference-long performance she highlighted with a 19-point game in steering the HD Spikers past the F2 Logistics Cargo Movers, 25-22, 23-25, 25-20, 25-18, for the bronze medal earlier.
Other awardees were Cignal’s Gel Cayuna (best setter), Tamaru and Valdez (best outside spikers), Majoy Baron of F2 Logistics and Domingo (best middle blockers), Carlos (best opposite spiker), and PLDT’s Kath Arado (best libero).
The Ablaze calmed the jitters while playing before an unfamiliar raucous hometown crowd that led to a first-set setback but needed to re-group and toughen up late in the second frame to draw level before claiming the next, only to succumb in the fourth.
