CREAMLINE booked the first ticket to the 2023 PVL Invitational Conference finals with a straight-sets rout of Kinh Bac Bac Ninh, 25-23, 25-23, 25-17, at the PhilSports Arena on Tuesday.
Jia De Guzman orchestrated the offense with 17 excellent sets on top of three markers as the reigning Invitationals champs advanced to the knockout title match on Sunday in search of its seventh PVL championship overall.
Despite a gallant stand against the titleholders, the Vietnamese guest team has now lost nine straight sets and dropped to 0-3 (win-loss) before its penultimate semifinal clash against Cignal on Thursday.
“The first two sets against [Kinh Bac Bac Ninh] were actually our adjustment sets because it was our first time to go up against a team from Vietnam,” De Guzman said.
“Compared to the other PVL teams that we’ve been going up against for so many years, it took us maybe a couple of sets to adjust or get to know the spikers and the attackers of Vietnam. So the third set was where we had to come out and the coaches asked that from us,” she added.
After a cold start, Creamline’s second stringers led by Michele Gumabao led the team back from seven points down before a vintage Alyssa Valdez power hit iced a willful first-set win.
The same story unfolded in the second frame but the Cool Smashers’ usual suspects in Valdez (11 points), Tots Carlos (16 points), and Jema Galanza (10 points) dashed Kinh Bac Bac Ninh’s hopes of forcing an extension.
To make matters worse for the visitors, an unfortunate knee injury early in the third frame saw captain Nguyen Oanh stretchered off the court.
Ace winger Nguyen Huong paced Kinh Bac Bac Ninh with a game-high 19 points.
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