DEFENDING champion Creamline completed a sweep of its eliminations games in the PVL 2nd All-Filipino Conference after beating also-ran Galleries Tower, 19-25, 25-16, 26-14, 25-13, at the PhilSports Arena in Pasig City on Tuesday.
After an error-prone start saw the Cool Smashers go a set down, the league-leaders switched gears in the next three sets with dominating wins even as star hitter Alyssa Valdez was rested during the game.
Jema leads from front for Creamline
Jema Galanza was the anchor on offense with 12 points as the Cool Smashers completed an 11-0 run to the top seed in the semifinals, where they will meet No. 4 Chery Tiggo in a best-of-three series starting on Thursday.
Still, getting over the hump against the Galleries Tower was not a walk in the park for the unbeaten Cool Smashers.
The Highrisers took them off guard as they leaned on Roma Joy Doromal’s scoring to pull the rug from under the Cool Smashers in the first set.
Riding the high of their first win in the conference against the listless Gerflor Defenders last week, Doromal clinched the set on back-to-back points. Creamline's nine errors in that set aided Galeries Tower's cause.
Undeterred, the Cool Smashers regained their vigor in the next three sets, buoyed by role players who were given extended playing time as coach Sherwin Meneses fielded all 14 players against the Galleries Tower.
Creamline bench steps up
Among the big contributors were Rosemarie Vargas and Lorie Bernardo who chipped in a combined 15 points off of the bench.
Galanza and Bernadeth Pons were the only Cool Smashers to breach double figures in the balanced team effort. Pons ended up with 10 points, second to Galanza’s Player of the Game effort of 12 markers.
Doromal, for her part, paced Galleries Tower with 13 points.
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