Playmaker Jia de Guzman produced a 17-excellent set game while probing the Vietnamese defense and Tots Carlos, Alyssa Valdez and Jema Galanza provided the routine offensive sock for a team that has continued to thrive under pressure while overcoming challenges thrown at them.
“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.
With a 4-0 slate in the semis, Creamline formalized its entry to the finals while moving two wins away from retaining the championship.
“It’s our first time to go up against a team from Vietnam, so the first two were adjustment sets, like getting to know their spikers and attackers,” said de Guzman, who also finished with three points to claim the Player of the Game citation.
But the opening frame honors should go to Michele Gumabao, who came off the bench to score five clutch points and rally the Cool Smashers from 13-19 down. Playing her role without fail, Gumabao fired back-to-back hits to break a long Creamline spell and after Pangs Panaga scored on a couple of kill blocks, the former La Salle stalwart hammered three straight hits, the last a crosscourt kill that shoved the team to a 21-20 lead.
The Cool Smashers controlled majority of the second set and looked headed for a cruise until the Vietnamese, behind the heavy-hitting Nguyen Huong, charged back from 11-19 down to tie it on an 8-0 roll.
But like in the previous set, Creamline showed so much poise and pounced on Kinh Bac-Bac Ninh’s errors with Valdez closing out the set for the second straight time with an off-the-block hit.
The Cool Smashers then broke away midway in the third on a four-hit blast to shatter a 15-all count as the Vietnamese, who lost skipper Nguyen Oanh early in the set on a bad landing, lost steam and composure, yielding four straight points after closing in last at 17-20.
Carlos finished with 16 points, including 14 on attacks, while Valdez and Galanza came through with 11 and 10 points, respectively, and Ced Domingo dominated the middle with four blocks and wound up with eight points. Gumabao and Panaga matched eight-point outputs for the crowd favorites.
Huong came away with 19 points while Le Xuan added 10 points and Oanh made eight points before being carried out of the court as the Vietnamese bowed out of the finals with a third straight loss.
“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),” said de Guzman.
