February 21 ------ CREAMLINE clinched the No. 1 seed for the qualifying round by ending prelims play with a 25-15, 26-24, 25-19 rout of Galeries Tower in the 2024-25 PVL All-Filipino Conference at the Philsports Arena. Alyssa Valdez’ vintage performance led Creamline's bounce-back win after its first loss of the conference to PLDT last week with 16 points on 15 attacks and one block, while Tots Carlos topscored with 18 markers. With a sweep guaranteeing the Cool Smashers of the No. 1 seed, the Highrisers almost played spoiler when they surprisingly took control of the second set at 19-11.
A late 11-2 Creamline run saw the defending champions run away come the third set to complete the straight-sets victory. As the top seed, in the next stage of the competition, Creamline will go up in a knockout match against the 12th seed which can still be anyone among Galeries Tower (1-10), Capital1 (1-10) or Nxled (1-9). Creamline’s win also handed Petro Gazz the no. 2 seed regardless of how it ends prelims play later in the day against an Nxled team that has only won one of its nine matches so far in this conference. Rose Baliton paced a hapless Highrisers effort with 10 points on five blocks, four attacks and one ace.
Valdez asserted how the Cool Smashers' near sweep of the preliminaries isn't indicative of perfection just yet. While Creamline pulled away with ease in almost all of its 11 first-round matches, bar a late five-set blunder to PLDT, the Cool Smashers skipper sees more than a few holes in their game that they'll need to address before going all-out in the playoffs for their 11th league title. "One of the skills na na-improve ng halos lahat would be the system and the blocking. I guess we’re gonna work on our counter attacks pa rin and basics, disiplina most definitely sa sistema namin," Valdez said. "May mga sistema kami na kailangan pa rin naming ma-perfect. Basics, kapag free ball, ‘pag mahihinang bola, at the end of the day kailangan namin siyang kahit papaano ma-perfect din. "‘Yun ‘yung mga minor details that will helps us in the end of the game and ‘yun ‘yung magma-matter lalo na kapag dikitan."
Source: spin.ph
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