Creamline, Petro kick off PVL title series

MANILA, Philippines — Creamline will rely on experience and unmatched crowd support while Petro Gazz will ride the momentum of its dramatic come-from-behind semis win over Cignal when the Premier Volleyball League Open Conference finals unfolds tonight at the MOA Arena.

The Cool Smashers, who swept the Choco Mucho Flying Titans in two games, and the Angels, who downed the Cignal HD Spikers, 25-21, 28-26, 15-25, 25-21, at the Filoil Flying V Arena in San Juan last Monday night to complete a 2-1 series win, go at it in the opener of their best-of-three series at 6 p.m.

Game 2 is set Friday while a decider, if necessary, is on Sunday both at the Ynares Center in Antipolo.

While other teams went on a pre-season recruiting spree, Creamline opted to retain the core that finished behind last year’s champion Chery Tiggo and made the finals in four previous conferences before the league turned pro.

It won three championships during that fantastic run.

Interestingly, this will be the third time Creamline and Petro Gazz will meet in the finals in the PVL with the former winning their 2019 Open Conference duel and the latter taking their Reinforced Conference showdown early that year.

“We hope to rely on our championship experience,” said Creamline coach Sherwin Meneses.

The Cool Smashers are expected to have the crowd behind them after drawing a league record attendance of 16,687 at MOA Arena in Game 2 of their series with the Flying Titans last Sunday.

In the classification phase, Bali Pure showed its mastery of last year’s titlist Chery Tiggo, 15-25, 25-20, 18-25, 25-22, 15-7, to close its campaign with a win.

However, Bali Pure still finished ninth behind Army Black Mamba in seventh and Chery Tiggo in eighth.

Petro Gazz though is unfazed by these challenges.

“We will prepare hard, we will try our best,” said Petro Gazz mentor Jerry Yee.