They still have one match left in the round-robin semifinals of the PVL Invitational Conference.
Job’s not done.
This was what Jia De Guzman said after the Creamline Cool Smashers secured a finals slot in the PVL Invitational Conference on Tuesday.
De Guzman said the Cool Smashers will return to practice on Wednesday to prime themselves up for the match against Japanese team Kurashiki Ablaze in the round-robin semifinals.
“We know the job is not done. We need a lot of experience from our game against Japan going to the finals,” De Guzman said postgame after Creamline's 25-23, 25-23, 25-17 win over Kinh Bac-Bac Ninh that gave the Cool Smashers a 4-0 slate.
“We don’t know who we’re going up against. But whoever it will be, we really need the time to prepare and recover for it.”
Such mindset is understandable. The Ablaze, after all, zoomed to two victories since setting foot on Philippine soil.
Meanwhile, Creamline had a rough time before coming up with the straight sets win against the Vietnamese team.
The Cool Smashers had to claw back from a seven-point deficit in the opening set and survive furious comeback attempts by the visiting team in the second, before finally gaining their bearings to close it out in the third.
“The first two sets are actually adjustment sets because it was our first time to go up against the team from Vietnam,” she said.
“Compared to other PVL teams we’ve been going up against for so many years, it took us a couple of sets to get to know the spikers and the attackers of Vietnam. The third was where it had to come out and the coaches were asking that from us,” De Guzman added.
Creamline looks to wrap up the semifinals on a high note on Friday when it takes on Kurashiki at the Philsports Arena.
(MDB)