Creamline reasserts mastery over sister team Choco Mucho in PVL Valentine's Day showdown

MANILA, Philippines (Updated 8:36 p.m.) — The Creamline Cool Smashers came out with an utterly dominant showing in a straight-sets victory over sister team Choco Mucho Flying Titans, 25-18, 25-13, 25-14, in the Premier Volleyball League (PVL) All-Filipino Conference on Valentine's Day at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.

In a showdown of the PVL's most popular teams, the Cool Smashers notched their eighth straight win over the Flying Titans. They have yet to lose to their fellow Rebisco-backed team.

Also notable is the fact that the win came without Creamline's star spiker Alyssa Valdez, who continues to miss games for the Cool Smashers due to injury.

But the defending champions remain spotless at 3-0 for solo lead in the standings early. The Cool Smashers have yet to drop a set this tournament.

Though displaying sheer dominance over their foes, Creamline head coach Sherwin Meneses still rued some unforced errors early on in the game.

"Actually nung first set, grabe yung balikan ng errors. We had seven service errors so talagang yun yung unang inayos namin sa second and third set. Seven errors talaga, sobrang daming yun." he said.

Fortunately, his wards were able to recover well. "Pero sa ibang aspect naman, naglaro ng maganda kaya naging ganyan yung game, naging mabilis ba." he added.

Creamline's dominance piggy-backed on a hot start by Jema Galanza. It was also a Galanza off-the-block hit that gave Creamline its biggest lead of the set, 21-11.

The Cool Smashers took lopsided wins in the first two sets to take the 2-0 advantage.

In the third canto, Choco Mucho showed some fight early as they were within two points, 9-11, after an error by Tots Carlos.

But any fight was quickly extinguished by three straight points by the Cool Smashers.

Celine Domingo blocked a Kat Tolentino hit to clinch match point, 25-14.

Domingo took Player of the Game honors with 15 points off 12 attacks and three blocks.

Galanza and Michele Gumabao finished with 15 markers each as well.

By themselves, the troika match the scoring output of the whole Choco Mucho team at 45 points.

Tolentino and Des Cheng were the lone bright spots for the Flying Titans with eight points each.

The Cool Smashers seek to improve to 4-0 for the conference when they face the F2 Cargo Movers this Saturday, February 18.

Meanwhile, Choco Mucho, which is now 1-2, eyes a bounce-back victory against the Army Black Mamba on Thursday, February 23.