Zhetysu silenced the home crowd after delivering a dominant straight-set victory over Creamline, 25-16, 25-17, 25-17, to open its 2025 AVC Women’s Champions League campaign on Monday at the Philsports Arena.
The Kazakhs showcased a commanding performance throughout the match, leaving the Cool Smashers with little room to recover for a 1-0 start in Pool A of this tournament that has Mikasa, Mizuno, and Grand Sport as federation partners.
Creamline, which finished pool play with a 1-1 record, holds a superior points quotient over Al Naser. It can automatically clinch the second seed as long as Zhetysu defeats the Jordan Volleyball Premier League champions tomorrow at 1:00 PM.
However, a loss by the Kazakhs to the Jordanians will create a three-way tie at 1-1, triggering a tiebreaker.
(C) PVL Images
Tatyana Nikitina took charge with 14 points, all from attacks, to go along with nine excellent digs after an hour and 10 minutes of action as Zhetysu moved to a win away from securing the top seed in the group.
Karyna Denysova scored 12 points, while Valeriya Yakutina led the Kazakhs’ impenetrable net defense, contributing eight of the team’s 11 blocks. She also had three attacks and an ace for a total of 12 points, to help secure the lopsided win.
Zhetysu head coach Marko Grsic revealed that he studied the 2024-25 Premier Volleyball League All-Filipino Conference Finals to prepare for the Cool Smashers, a tactic that clearly paid off with their impressive debut win in the tournament, which is supported by local partners PLDT, MWell, Eagle Cement, Rebisco, Akari, Gameville, PNVF, PSC, Cignal, and The Look Group.
It also helped that the team was familiar with the Cool Smashers’ reinforcements — former VC Kuanysh standouts Anastassiya Kolomoyets and Anastasiya Kudryashova — having faced them previously in the Kazakh Volleyball League.
“Before we arrived in the Philippines, I watched the final matches of the Philippine championship. The foreign players in Creamline, they played in Kazakhstan. We already know the qualities and all things that they can do,” said Marko Grsic.
“We were very, very prepared for this match,” he added, as the team executed their game plan to near perfection and capitalized on their familiarity with key Creamline players.
(C) PVL Images
American import Erica Staunton led the Cool Smashers with nine points, while Kolomoyets and Kudryashova were held to just six and five points, respectively, in their first loss in the tourney organized by Sports Vision.
Alyssa Valdez and Bernadeth Pons were the top local performers for Creamline with four points apiece, while Jeanette Panaga and Lorie Bernardo had three markers each.
