Creamline team captain Alyssa Valdez chose to stick to the positives after the Cool Smashers’ rusty debut win against rival Petro Gazz in the 2022 Premier Volleyball League Invitational Conference, Tuesday night.
“It was a very slow start for us,” said the reigning Open Conference Finals MVP. “But I think the good thing about this is we’re gonna see talaga kung ano pa yung mga things na kailangan naming i-improve.”
The Cool Smashers had a rough opening set against the Angels, trailing by as much as eight points early in the frame before making a huge pivot late via a 21-10 blast for the 1-0 advantage.
Creamline dropped a tightly contested second set and fought back from a four-point deficit late in the third to take a two-sets-to-one advantage heading in the fourth and final set.
The team played from behind once more in the fourth, but turned things around through a 13-5 rally that gave them a 21-15 advantage. Valdez, who has been struggling all game long, along with Michelle Gumabao nailed the final hits to secure the hard-fought victory.
“Yun naman yung very important for us pati kay coach, [yung makita] kung saan kami magi-improve pa at kung ano pa yung mas madadala namin sa mga next games namin,” Valdez said.
The former Ateneo superstar also tipped her hat to Petro Gazz – the team they took down to win the Open Conference finals – for putting up a great fight despite missing the likes of Grethcel Soltones and Remy Palma.
“This game medyo mahirap, masakit sa ulo nga sabi ni coach pero bibigay din namin sa Petro Gazz kasi they really played well today pero yun nga, learnings.
As for her own performance, the 29-year-old star only had this to say: “It was a very bad performance tonight.”
Valdez was far from her usual self against the Angels, coming up with only eight points on seven attacks and one kill block in their 25-22, 23-25, 25-22, 25-20 win at the FilOil Flying V Centre.
And she looks to move past that as she aims to be more consistent for the Cool Smashers in the games to come.
“Ganun lang naman talaga e, one game at a time. Ang game plan naman ng mga coaches hindi agad-agad one hundred percent so hopefully we mature, we grow as a team in this Invitational Conference.”
