Creamline schools KingWhale to clinch PVL Invitational crown

MANILA, Philippines (Updated 7:43 p.m.) — The Creamline Cool Smashers avenged their semifinals loss to KingWhale Taipei en route to the championship of the Premier Volleyball League (PVL) Invitational Conference with a straight-sets beatdown, 25-21, 25-19, 25-8, at the Mall of Asia Arena on Sunday.

Creamline, which has now won its fifth title in the PVL, stamped its class against the guest team that swept the semifinal round.

In Set 2, KingWhale looked poised to tie the match when they held a 16-10 lead in the second technical timeout.

But Michele Gumabao led a 15-3 run to shock KingWhale as the Filipina spikers took the dominant 2-0 lead.

By the third set, the Cool Smashers dominated their Taiwanese counterparts with the crowd rocking in the arena.

The strong start turned into a strong finish as KingWhale could not get anything going and gave up the sweep with a lopsided Set 3 loss.

League MVP Carlos was the top scorer with 14 points while Jema Galanza added 13 markers.

Celine Domingo, who took home the Finals MVP plum, added 11 points on four blocks.

Beatriz Flavio de Carvalho was the only KingWhale in double-digit scoring with 12 points in the loss.

The Cool Smashers are now one conference championship away from completing a grand slam in this year's PVL season.