Eager to make up for their slip-up in the Reinforced Conference, Tots Carlos and the Creamline Cool Smashers opened their best-of-three semifinal series against F2 Logistics with a rousing four-set victory on Saturday night.
“Happy kami kasi, well, ‘yung mindset ay hindi lang naman para bumawi. It’s more on, we want to be in the Finals since we ended up in third place last season,” said the two-time PVL Most Valuable Player.
Creamline overcame a third-set blunder to draw first blood in the series, winning 26-24, 25-18, 22-25, 25-15 against the Cargo Movers in the 2023 Premier Volleyball League All-Filipino Conference at the Philsports Arena.
Carlos fired a game-high 22 points built on 22 attacks to go along with 17 excellent digs and 15 excellent receptions to help the Cool Smashers move closer to a fifth straight All-Filipino Conference finals appearance – their eighth overall.
The UP standout said that the team’s errors played a huge part in their third-set loss, and they made sure to bounce back in the fourth by executing their plays seamlessly.
“Yun lang din. May tiwala naman si coach sa amin, so alam namin kung nakita niyo ‘yung stats, we had 11 errors. They only had five. So parang for us, more on errors pa rin namin ‘yung nangyari sa third set,” said Carlos.
“So ayun, we just executed ‘yung mga plays namin and ‘yung mga basic na skills namin ng mas maayos, para mapaganda ‘yung flow ng laro namin.”
Carlos also gave credit to team captain Alyssa Valdez, who constantly gave reminders to the Cool Smashers in-game and during timeouts.
Valdez, who injured her right knee during their bronze medal match against Chery Tiggo in the Reinforced Conference, is set to miss the rest of the conference as she is still recovering.
“Sabi ni Ate Ly … More on, si Ate Ly kasi, objective ‘yan mag-salita, plus with motivations. So ‘yun lang, reminders lang naman ang sinasabi niya, kung ano lang ‘yung nakikita niya na pwede pa naming i-improve, pwede pa namin ayusin,” shared Carlos.
“Like ‘yung mga bola na pag balikan, mas okay kung mako-control namin, mabibigay namin kay Ate Jia [Morado]. So ayun lang, reminders lang na may konting motivation, tsaka nire-remind niya lang kami na maging patient [and] composed.”
Creamline looks to sweep F2 Logistics on Tuesday, 6:30 PM at the SM Mall of Asia Arena.
“So ang goal talaga is umangat kami ng paisa-isa lang. Hindi namin minamadali lahat. So, yeah, we’re happy we won this game. So 1-0 na.”
