After losing to Chery Tiggo in last conference’s finals, Jema Galanza made a promise to the rest of the Creamline Cool Smashers.
Galanza, 2019 PVL Open Conference MVP, struggled to find her rhythm in the last season’s tournament that saw Creamline lose the title of first-ever professional women’s volleyball champion to Chery Tiggo.
Acknowledging that her performance took a dip during that conference, Galanza vowed to come back stronger and help the Cool Smashers regain its top-dog status in the PVL.
And on Saturday night, Galanza finally fulfilled that promise.
The 5-foot-7 outside hitter from San Pedro, Laguna delivered 17 points to tow the Cool Smashers to a title-clinching, 25-18, 15-25, 25-23, 25-16 Game Two victory over Petro Gazz in the 2022 Open Conference finals.
“Siguro kasama na yung last year, kasi medyo off yung season ko last year,” shared Galanza after Creamline notched its fourth franchise title.
“So sabi ko, ngayong taon babawi talaga ako sa team kasi ang laki talaga ng kinulang ko sa team last year. So sabi ko, ngayon babawi ako ng sobra.
“Sobrang happy as in hindi ko talaga alam yung sasabihin ko kanina. Natutulala ako, speechless talaga and tinitignan ko lang yung mga tao na totoo na pala talaga Creamline na talaga yung nag champion pero ayun, sobrang happy talaga and worth it lahat ng pagod namin. Alam mo yun, bawing bawi talaga yung nangyari last year,” she added.
According to Galanza, the competitive field of this conference is what separates this championship from the previous three titles that Creamline won. She also said that the team really worked hard prior to this conference just to avoid another setback just like what happened in the previous season.
“Ngayon kasi talaga yung level ng competitiveness ng bawat teams talagang grabe, hindi ka puwedeng mag relax. Every game talaga ilalaban mo, walang tapon talaga sa kalaban. Grabe rin yung tinraining namin talaga so double time kami lagi kasi ganun yung mga kalaban namin,” the Adamson product opined.
The pressure to win it all was definitely there, but Galanza bared that the team’s positive mindset relieved everyone from that pressure. And that, said the 25-year-old outside spiker, proved to be one of the keys in Creamline’s redemption season that saw them complete an eight-game sweep.
“Maliban sa na-sweep namin, walang talo ngayong season ‘di ba grabe? Hindi rin naman siya ganun kadali pero special siya kasi iba yung feeling lang ng team ngayon, sobrang happy lang namin na naglalaro kahit may pressure, alam namin na babawi kami,” she said.
“Yung ganung feeling, sobrang sarap lang maglaro na para kang bata ulit, laro ka lang nang laro, palo ka lang nang palo, receive ka lang nang receive, yung ganung happiness talaga habang naglalaro and yun nga ang sarap talaga mag laro na inspirasyon niyo yung bawat isa.”
