CREAMLINE isn’t the PVL’s winningest team for nothing.
The Cool Smashers escaped the jaws of defeat with a 25-15, 16-25, 25-21, 15-25, 15-9 Game Two win over the Petro Gazz Angels in the 2024-25 PVL All-Filipino Conference finals on Thursday at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.
And for one more game, Creamline’s ‘drive-for-five’ lives on.
Bernadeth Pons was a dig shy of a triple-double with 22 points, 12 receptions and nine digs, powered by 26 excellent sets from two-time PVL best setter Kyle Negrito.
Jema Galanza has made the most of her resurgent run of form when it mattered most with 13 points ahead of middle blocker Pangs Panaga's 12 and Michele Gumabao's 11.
History favors Cool Smashers
Recent history has favored Creamline when it comes to winning Game 2 of a championship series after losing the series opener.
The only prior occasion it lost a Game One was in the 2023 1st All-Filipino Conference finals when the Angels took Game 1 right before the Cool Smashers responded with a two-game reverse sweep to win their sixth PVL title at the time.
That series comeback would then become the toughest test to Creamline’s four-year All-Filipino reign.
In two days’ time, it will have one last chance to write the same golden story as the Cool Smashers eye another crown jewel to its lore with an unprecedented fifth-straight and 11th PVL crown in a winner-take-all Game 3 at the Philsports Arena in Pasig.
Meanwhile, Petro Gazz still has a hand on a first All-Filipino championship and third overall title.
Brooke Van Sickle's 18-point, 14-reception, 10-dig triple-double and Jonah Sabete's 14-point, 12-reception, 11-dig triple-double both went for naught.
And for the third time in six trips to the finals, the Angels will fight for a championship through a rubber match.
In those two prior occasions, Petro Gazz won one in the 2019 Reinforced Conference and lost in the 2023 1st All-Filipino Conference — both to Creamline.
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