Alyssa Valdez expressed her gratitude to her Creamline family for encouraging her after a forgettable debut against Petro Gazz, Saturday afternoon.
Valdez struggled in the team’s opening match against the Angels, tallying only eight points on seven attacks and a block in the 25-22, 23-25, 25-22, 25-20 win last Tuesday.
It was a rare off night for the five-time Conference Most Valuable Player, and she’s just glad to go through it with her sisters at the Cool Smashers.
“I’m just very thankful na I’m with this team,” said the Cool Smashers skipper after its second consecutive win against PLDT. “Very encouraging, so the next day we trained talaga and we just focused on everything, not really focusing on what happened during the match [against Petro Gazz].
“Sobrang thankful pa rin ako na binibigyan ako ng tiwala ng coaches ko, ng teammates ko. Kailangan ko bigyan ng tiwala ang sarili ko. Thankful lang kasi nandoon pa rin yung tiwala ng team.”
In a bid to redeem herself after a subpar outing in the first match, the 5-foot-9 volleyball superstar scored 13 kills on 28 attempts to go along with 11 excellent digs. She led Creamline’s 25-22, 25-16 25-21 win over PLDT to go 2-0 in the standings.
While their performance against the High Speed Hitters was definitely an improvement from the previous one, Valdez said that the team is still looking to fine tune some aspects of their game moving forward.
“We’re very happy but at the end of the day, ayun nga as you’ve said kanina ang dami naming unforced errors na pwede naman naming i-minimize talaga during the match so hopefully yun talaga yung kahit papaano, mas ma-improve pa namin habang tumatagal yung tournament,” said Valdez.
Nevertheless, a win is a win for Creamline.
“We’re just grateful. A win is a win, we’re gonna focus on the next game.”