Games Thursday
(Philsports Arena)
4 p.m. – Creamline vs Galeries Tower
6:30 p.m. – Nxled vs Petro Gazz
By KRISTEL SATUMBAGA
Fancied Creamline and Petro Gazz seek to maintain their top two positions when they clash with separate rivals on Thursday, Feb. 20, in the Premier Volleyball League All-Filipino Conference at the Philsports Arena in Pasig City.
The Cool Smashers battle the Galeries Tower Highrisers at 4 p.m., while the Angels square off with the Nxled Chameleons at 6:30 p.m. in the penultimate playdate of the qualifying round.
Sporting identical 9-1 cards, Creamline and Petro Gazz are chasing for the No. 1 seeding heading to the next phase which pits the top team against the No. 12 crew, and the No. 2 against No. 11, and so on.
So far though, the Cool Smashers are ahead with a 29-set win advantage compared to the Angels’ 27, making their respective matches critical in every frame.
Apart from the top seeding, Creamline is also looking to bounce back from a stinging five-set loss to PLDT last weekend that halted its imposing 19-game winning streak.
With that, the Cool Smashers are not taking the Highrisers lightly, despite the latters’ 1-9 record.
The troika of Bernadeth Pons, Jema Galanza and Tots Carlos is expected to anchor Creamline anew, with Bea De Leon and Kyle Negrito also out to provide support.
Galeries Tower, for its part, is eager to crawl out of a five-game slump and pull off an upset win, with Jho Maraguinot, Ysa Jimenez and Julia Coronel challenging Creamline’s frontline assault.
However, the Highrisers and Chameleons, both at 1-9, remain hopeful of pulling off major upsets – though they will need more than just luck to do so.
“It’s okay. Even though we lost last night, we recovered today, so we were able to bounce back a bit. But we didn’t really dwell too much on yesterday’s loss,” said Cool Smashers head coach Sherwin Meneses in Filipino.
