There was a Dad whose Wish was to see and hug an Alyssa, Dad cried for joy

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Still no Alyssa, Tots, Jema for Creamline in PVL Reinforced Round 2

Cool Smashers will continue to lean on their newfound ‘Big 3’

EXPECT the same undermanned Creamline side come Round 2 of pool play in the 2024 PVL Reinforced Conference.

Even after a tough conference-opening five-set loss to PLDT, the eight-time PVL champions still topped their pool with four wins in a row.

The absence of the Cool Smashers’ original ‘Big 3’ in Alyssa Valdez, Tots Carlos, and Jema Galanza saw the rise of a new one in American import Erica Staunton, Bernadeth Pons, and Michelle Gumabao.

Staunton finished the opening round sixth on the scoring leaderboard with 19.2 points, while Pons landed in 10th (15.6 points) and Gumabao in 14th (12.6 points).

As Creamline has already found success without its star trio – with Valdez and Carlos still recovering from injury and Galanza still on Alas Pilipinas duty – head coach Sherwin Meneses believes they’ll continue to do so with a similar cast.

At the same time, though, the multi-titled mentor is optimistic to have his stars back

“As of now hindi pa namin sigurado. Hopefully, makasama sila. Depende kasi sa medical team namin, sa mga PTs namin kung kailan sila makakabalik, pero hindi pipilitin,” Meneses said.

“Sa tingin ko, ‘yung roster pa rin ngayon ‘yung maglalaro (sa Round 2).”

Creamline shorthanded, but motivated

Still, Gumabao isn’t too worried with the Cool Smashers being shorthanded, as she beamed with pride at how their bench players can fill the void of their injured aces at any given time.

“‘Yung first six namin ngayon, ang dami nga talagang nagbago, ang daming changes so this was also our first time na makalaro kami in the PVL ulit na buo kaming anim,” said Gumabao.

“Kapaan pa talaga, pero nandun naman ‘yung tiwala para sa bawat isa sa team. Kahit naman sinong ipasok even from our bench, tinatiyaga naman talaga namin, uumpisahan namin sa practice.”