Alyssa Valdez displayed her scoring prowess to lead Creamline past the gritty BaliPure Water Defenders, 25-20, 28-30, 25-19, 31-29, Wednesday night for its second straight win in the Premier Volleyball League Open Conference at the FilOil Flying V Centre in San Juan.

The Cool Smashers ace hitter dropped 37 points and carried the squad in the fourth set as Creamline joined Pocari Sweat on top of the standings with 2-0 win-loss record.

The Cool Smashers rallied from a 21-23 deficit in the fourth set and were able to reach match point, 24-23, but the Water Defenders equalized to force the first of six deuces.

The two squads engaged in a seesaw battle in the next couple of plays with the last deadlock at 29 after a kill by Valdez. BaliPure hitter Grethcel Soltones, who played though a left ankle sprain she sustained in the third set, committed an attack error in the next play before veteran Ivy Remulla sealed the victory with a kill block on Jorelle Singh to end the two-hour, 3-minute duel.

Valdez had 34 kills, a pair of aces and a kill block while adding 17 digs for the Cool Smashers, who rained down 67 attack points in an early Reinforced Conference semifinals rematch.

Rosemarie Vargas added 19 markers while Pau Soriano finished with 14 points for Creamline. Jia Morado was superb as always on her playmaking as the former Ateneo de Manila Lady Eagle dished out 71 excellent sets.

“Iba rin kasi talaga ang laban kasi very strong din ang BaliPure. From the last conference tough din talaga ang mga matches na ginawa nila. Very strong and very brave young team,” said Valdez, whose production came three points short of tying the league single game scoring record set by American import Michelle Strizak of Pocari Sweat last Reinforced Conference. “Siguro breaks of the game din talaga siguro ang nagpa-win sa amin. Definitely, pinaghirapan ng both teams para maabot sa ganoong kalayong score.”

Soltones had 18 points, all from attacks, while Risa Sato and Aiko Urdas got 14 and 12 markers, respectively for the Water Defenders.

Jasmine Nabor had 61 excellent sets and eight points for BaliPure, which dropped to 1-1 slate.

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