A couple of net touch violations sealed the fate of the Cool Smashers in Game 1, but they also tallied 22 errors.
It's okay not to be okay... last Sunday. Then you gotta shake it off for Tuesday.
Creamline Cool Smashers coach Sherwin Meneses on Monday acknowledged that the defending champions experienced disappointment after suffering a loss in Game 1 of the PVL All-Filipino Conference finals against the Petro Gazz Angels last Sunday. The Cool Smashers are humans with feelings too after all.
"Of course, everyone who loses feels a bit sad in the first twenty minutes," Meneses told PVL.ph. "But if we carry the sadness until tomorrow, we might not be able to recover, so there's sadness in the team, but we'll overcome it."
It was especially significant for Petro Gazz, breaking their 14-game losing skid against Creamline. It was their first since beating the pink squad for the 2019 Reinforced Conference.
While key net touch violations spelled Creamline's defeat in not just one but two sets, Meneses believed the Cool Smashers' loss went beyond that.
"The breaks of the game are something we can't control, but as I said, we didn't lose because of them. We had a lot of lapses, a lot of errors," he said.
Creamline, a team which has a penchant for making up for their errors which sheer firepower, tallied 22 lapses in four sets. Petro Gazz had 18.
However, Meneses said the Cool Smashers have a strong mindset and can bounce back against the Angels this Tuesday. After all, this was only Creamline's second loss in the All-Filipino Conference after an intense five-setter against the F2 Logistics Cargo Movers back in February.
Creamline will attempt to even the series and prevent Petro Gazz from taking their first All-Filipino title later at 6:30 p.m. at the Mall of Asia Arena. The game will be shown live on One Sports and One Sports+.