If there’s one thing that stuck to Tots Carlos after their tough loss on Saturday, it’s what Creamline head coach Sherwin Meneses said in the dugout just moments after their 19-game winning streak came to an end at the hands of Chery Tiggo.
Despite suffering their first defeat in almost eight months, an upbeat Meneses showed up to the locker room and told the Cool Smashers that he was actually excited to see how the defending champions would recover from the painful loss.
“Ang akin lang siguro, after that game, ang tumatak sa isip ko yung sinabi nina coach na excited siya makita yung team kung paano namin dadamahin yung pagkatalo namin, kung paano kami magre-react,” recalled Carlos.
Indeed, it was an answer worth waiting for as Meneses witnessed how the Cool Smashers bounced back in style and vented their ire on Capital1, 25-18, 25-14, 25-15, in the 2024 Premier Volleyball League All-Filipino Conference on Thursday.
The win gave Creamline the solo lead in the standings with a 5-1 win-loss record.
“Syempre, iyong win ngayon kahit papaano naka-recover kami sa last loss namin pero ang importante naman eh makapaglaro kami ng maayos tsaka ma-improve every game para pagdating sa dulo ng mga games maganda iyong ilaro namin,” said Meneses.
As for Carlos, who scored a team-high 14 points in the win, she said that she never doubted the Cool Smashers’ capability to bounce back, sharing that the team worked really hard together in the past couple of days to address their miscues and perform better against the Solar Spikers.
“Yun din naman yung alam ko, for sure na hindi naman kami magpapabaya na bababa nang bababa yung laro namin. Alam namin na tutulungan din talaga kami nila coach and yung teammates namin,” said the three-time league MVP.
“Yun nga, for sure marami kaming dinaramdam personally, pero at the end of the day iisipin namin kung ano ‘yung makakabuti para sa team,” she added.
Carlos also said that the team just went back to implementing Meneses’ system, admitting that the team seemed lost during their straight-set defeat against the Crossovers in Santa Rosa.
“We really went back to training lang. Kinausap kami nina coach na– honestly, wala diniin lang ulit yung sistema kasi medyo nawala kami during that game (against Chery Tiggo). So yun, sina coach pa rin naman yung bahala sa amin.”
