Creamline, Choco Mucho eye to sustain form

MANILA, Philippines: Both rolling with eight straight wins each and having clinched their semifinal spots already, Choco Mucho and defending champion Creamline eye to sustain their fine form as they face separate foes in the 2023 PVL 2nd All-Filipino Conference at the PhilSports Arena on Wednesday.

The Flying Titans battle the Gerflor Defenders at 4 p.m., preceding the game of their sister team Cool Smashers who take on the Chery Tiggo Crossovers at 6 p.m.

Also-ran teams Farm Fresh Foxies and Galeries Tower Highrisers raise the curtains of the day’s triple-header with their match set at 2 p.m.

Choco Mucho seized its place in the semifinals after overcoming PLDT in five sets, 25-20, 23-25, 18-25, 25-17, 15-12, last Thursday.

With two more games in their elimination round schedule, Flying Titans head coach Dante Alinsunurin emphasized the importance of winning those two matches as they try to bring a winning momentum to the semifinals.

The decorated coach is taking a cautious approach, though, as his second seed team has now played back-to-back five setters that could not bode well for their health.

“We are still going to prepare [for the game against Gerflor] but I’m prioritizing the health of my players because they just played back-to-back five-setters. My utmost priority is their health,” said Alinsunurin.

“We’re going to put in the work in our last two games because it is always nice to enter the semifinals with a winning momentum on your side,” added Alinsunurin, whose team has not lost a game since yielding to Creamline to start the conference.

On the other hand, continuous improvement is the name of the game for the league-leading Cool Smashers who have yet to taste a defeat this conference. The Cool Smashers stopped the Nxled Chameleons, 25-23, 25-16, 25-21, last Thursday to stay pristine at 8-0.

But Creamline is wary of the third seed Crossovers, who also booked their ticket to the semis with their sixth consecutive win in the form of a 27-25, 11-25, 17-25, 25-22, 15-10 escape from F2 Logistics last Saturday.

“Our mindset is to improve every game. We should always improve even in training despite that we’re at the top of the standings. That has always been our mindset and the results just followed,” said Cool Smashers head coach Sherwin Meneses.

“The Crossovers are youthful, tall, and they have tremendous spikers. We’re going to study them and we’ll try to find a weak spot that we could take advantage of.”