Creamline will either face defending champion Petro Gazz Angels or the youthful Capital1 Solar Spikers in the knockout quarterfinals.
Quick and painless.
Powerhouse Creamline Cool Smashers quickly bounced back from their heartbreaking loss to Petro Gazz with a straight-set 25-17, 25-15, 25-22 sweep of the ZUS Coffee Thunderbelles to lock in on third seed heading into 2024 PVL Reinforced Conference quarterfinals on Tuesday, August 20, at the FilOil EcoOil Centre in San Juan City.
Both teams are fighting tooth-and-nail in the third set before ZUS Coffee scored back-to-back points off Creamline`s back-to-back errors to take the lead, 19-17.
But Bernadeth Pons and import Erica Staunton made their presence felt with scorching attacks to knot the game at 19-19 all.
Michele Gumabao put the Cool Smashers at match point courtesy of an off-the-block hit before sealing the sweep with a crucial ace to finish the match under one-hour-and-thirty-minutes.
Kyla Atienza showed her defensive masterclass with 11 excellent digs for the Cool Smashers, who finished with a 6-2 win-loss record just behind top seed Akari (8-0) and second-ranked Cignal (7-1).
And even if PLDT and Chery Tiggo emerg victorious in their respective matches later and forge a three-way tie with Creamline, the Cool Smashers will still end up at number 3 due to superior total points.
Erica Staunton paced the Cool Smashers anew with 17 points built on 15 points and two blocks while Bernadeth Pons added 11 markers and Lorie Bernardo made the most of her extended minutes with eight points.
Creamline was the clear-cut aggressor in the offensive end, dominating the attacking department at 43-29 despite committing more errors, 25-21.
Despite missing a bunch of their key players, mostly in the group phase, Creamline now heads to the playoffs on a winning note and looking towards another championship after their back-to-back All-Filipino titles.
Import Asaka Tamaru took up the scoring cudgles for the already-eliminated Thunderbelles with 16 points, becoming the lone double-digit scorer for ZUS Coffee with Michelle Gamit scoring five markers to be the team`s leading local scorer.
The Thunderbelles ended the season winless in eight games despite tapping the former Kurashiki Ablaze hitter in Tamaru as their reinforcement.