FOR the fifth time in PVL history, champion teams Creamline and Petro Gazz will dispute the league's crown jewel in a best-of-three series.
Also worth noting is that the Cool Smashers and Angels share all but four of the 16 league titles ever won since 2017, making them the two winningest teams to date.
#1 CREAMLINE vs. #2 PETRO GAZZ
- GAME 1: April 8 (Tuesday), 6:30 p.m. - Smart Araneta Coliseum
- GAME 2: April 10 (Thursday), 6:30 p.m. - Smart Araneta Coliseum
- *GAME 3: April 12 (Saturday), 6:30 p.m. - TBC
What’s at stake in this marquee matchup? Either a fifth straight and 11th overall title for Creamline or an elusive All-Filipino trophy and third PVL championship for Petro Gazz.
READ: Is Creamline still the favorite vs Petro Gazz in PVL finals?
SPIN.ph breaks down all you need to know ahead of an instant classic in the making between the powerhouse sides.
TALE OF THE TAPE
Creamline and Petro Gazz have played each other 34 times over the last seven years since the latter’s inception in 2018.
The head-to-head record now stands at 26-8 in the Cool Smashers’ favor.
In the PVL’s pre-pro league era from 2018 to 2019, Creamline won 10 of their first 14 matches.
But the four occasions the Angels came out on top had just a bit more weight, as the last two of those were finals wins.
Petro Gazz stormed back from an 0-1 series deficit in the 2019 Reinforced Conference finals to deal the Cool Smashers their first championship round defeat.
How did Creamline respond? By beating the Angels in their next 14 matches since that crushing Game Three loss in Antipolo.
They’d go on to win 19 of the next 20.
What matters now is the present, however. And by the looks of it, this Petro Gazz team might’ve just figured out how to solve the pink puzzle.
While the Cool Smashers made short work of their season-opener against the Angels, 25-19, 25-22, 25-16, the latter responded with a statement 25-23, 25-22, 21-25, 25-16 semifinals win en route to sweeping the penultimate round of the playoffs.
And as far as championships go, in the four prior times they’ve met in the finals, thrice Creamline has won in Open/All-Filipino Conference play and once for Petro Gazz in import-laden play.
ROAD TO THE FINALS
This conference’s finalists blazed trails of sheer dominance en route to the title series.
They even shared a 10-1 record by the end of prelims play, with Creamline yielding to PLDT in a five-set thriller in Antipolo and Petro Gazz only losing to the Cool Smashers in the second week of the season.
Such mastery of the field would continue in the qualifying round as the two teams took care of business in straight sets against cellar-dwellers Nxled and Capital1.
By no means, however, did either team have a crystal-clear path to the finals.
The Angels were dealt a rare upset by ZUS Coffee in Game One of their best-of-three quarterfinals series, 21-25, 23-25, 25-27.
Then came a no-mercy clapback from the two-time champions, as they swept the last two games of the series to advance to the semifinals and cut the Thunderbelles’ fairytale run short.
While that loss turned out to be Petro Gazz’ last blunder ahead of the finals after sweeping all three of its semis assignments, it made sure to deal Creamline a rare playoff hiccup of its own.
That semis-opening loss to Petro Gazz nearly jeopardized the Cool Smashers‘ drive-for-five,’ only to be saved by a pair of sweeps over two of its last three title rivals in Akari and sister team Choco Mucho.
FIGHT FOR FIRSTS
History is bound to unfold regardless of which direction this championship series swings.
For Creamline, even with 10 PVL titles to its name, it never had a championship streak as long as it could have if it goes on to win the All-Filipino crown.
As it stands, the Cool Smashers have won the last four Open/All-Filipino Conferences and also the last four conferences in general, including the 2023 2nd All-Filipino Conference and its 2024 Grand Slam season.
In every essence of the term, a five-peat is on the line for Creamline.
Meanwhile, this championship would mark a handful of firsts if Petro Gazz goes on and wins the series.
Having won two Reinforced Conference titles, it is the All-Filipino crown that has long eluded the Angels’ silverware collection.
Their last three attempts all fell flat to one and the same foe: the Cool Smashers.
This will also be Petro Gazz head coach Koji Tsuzurabara and leading scorer Brooke Van Sickle’s first taste of the PVL Finals over a year since entering the league.
Whether experience — either the abundance of it for Creamline as a team of the lack of it for some of Petro Gazz’ newer faces — will factor in heavily in this series will be known starting Tuesday come Game One of the best-of-three finals, 6:30 p.m. at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.
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