Game One holds key as Creamline, Petro Gazz meet again in PVL Finals

April 8 ------ GAME One has historically decided the eventual champion when it comes to Creamline versus Petro Gazz in two of four instances. In the four times the two champion teams met in a best-of-three title series, the Game One winner went on to win it in two of three occasions.

Excluded in this statistic are four of Creamline’s title wins that were decided through a single-game winner-take-all match where it has gone 4-0 against KingWhale Taipei (2022 Invitationals), Kurashiki Ablaze (2023 Invitationals), Akari (2024 Reinforced) and Cignal (2024 Invitationals).

Creamline won the PVL crown over Petro Gazz twice in their first three finals faceoffs — the last two of which ended in two-game sweeps. It included the 2019 Open and 2022 Open Conferences which became the first pair of title wins in seven occasions that the Cool Smashers swept a best-of-three championship series. As far as all-time numbers go, Creamline has won eight of nine best-of-three finals series openers.

The only time it lost Game One of a PVL Finals was against Petro Gazz in the 2023 1st All-Filipino Conference in four sets, 22-25, 26-24, 23-25, 24-26. Creamline went on to win the next two to win back-to-back titles in All-Filipino play. And in the eight Open/All-Filipino Conferences ever staged since the league’s inception in 2017, the Cool Smashers have won six of them - including four in a row. However, in the eight times Creamline won a PVL Finals series opener, there were two conferences wherein a Game One win did not lead to a championship win.

The very first Creamline-Petro Gazz title series in the 2019 Reinforced Conference swung in the latter's favor as the unassailable pair of imports in the late Janisa Johnson and Wilma Salas steered the Angels to a three-game reverse sweep for their first franchise title. Also, the pandemic-hit 2021 Open Conference in Bacarra, Ilocos Norte had Creamline win Game One over eventual champion Chery Tiggo in five sets just before losing both Game Two in four sets and Game Three in another five-setter. Come Tuesday, Creamline's 'drive-for-five' and Petro Gazz' chase for a third league title will go underway in their fifth PVL Finals series, 6:30 p.m. at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.

Source: spin.ph