Defending champion Creamline celebrated skipper Alyssa Valdez’s 30th birthday with a cakewalk win over an overwhelmed expansion team Gerflor, 25-18, 25-11, 25-12, for back-to-back wins in Pool A on Thursday in the Premier Volleyball League Invitational Conference at the FilOil EcoOil Centre in San Juan.
The Cool Smashers needed only 81 minutes to dispose of the Defenders and move closer to clinching a semifinals spot in the quick mid-season tournament.
Just like in its opening day drubbing of retooled Chery Tiggo, reigning conference Most Valuable Player Tots Carlos showed the way on offense as she tallied 15 points with 13 coming off kills for Creamline.
The Cool Smashers were in control the whole duel and head coach Sherwin Meneses had the luxury of fielding all available players on his bench for some playing time.
Except for liberos Kyla Atienza, who only played one set, and Ella de Jesus, all in Creamline’s star-studded roster produced points with Jema Galanza providing 10 markers.
Valdez, who is back after a long absence since December due to a right knee injury, started in the first two sets before calling it a day. She finished with four points.
Ced Domingo, the last year’s Finals MVP, chipped in eight points while Jia Morado-De Guzman had five points to go with 12 excellent sets.
Still, Meneses thought Creamline played tentatively in the early goings.
“We had a slow start but good thing we recovered,” he said.
“I’m happy all our players contributed to get this win.”
After a relatively competitive opening set, a 9-1 start in the second frame that ballooned to a 22-8 gap was all the Cool Smashers needed to put Gerflor in its place.
Meneses then pulled out most of his main weapons in the third frame to put away the Defenders, who proved to be no match to the firepower of the repeat-seeking powerhouse squad. The Cool Smashers opened a 22-9 advantage in the third frame before cruising to a sweep.
No Gerflor player reached double-digit with Justine Dorog and middle blocker Andrea Marzan putting up six points each.
Alyssa Bertolano had five markers for the Defenders, who threw away 16 points off errors and were outgunned 25-45 on attacks.
