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MANILA, Philippines – Be ready when your number is called.
No matter what team sport, that statement is always held to the utmost importance and drilled to every single player from top to bottom of every roster. Even a volleyball dynasty like the Creamline Cool Smashers, boasting a starting lineup almost exclusively filled by MVP-caliber stars, is no exception.
Bogged down with defensive woes against the Cignal HD Spikers in the ongoing 2023 PVL Invitational Conference semifinals, Creamline tapped team veteran Ella de Jesus as the main libero to close out the Saturday, July 22 match, replacing usual starter Kyla Atienza.
To head coach Sherwin Meneses’ delight, the rotation shift worked wonders as De Jesus and star spiker Jema Galanza worked in defensive harmony to tow the undefeated Cool Smashers to a nail-biting five-set win, their sixth straight for the conference.
“Of course, we’re very happy because Ella will always deliver. She’s a champion player,” Meneses said in Filipino after the game. “I told them, we don’t have to rush the game, and we congratulated Ella for a great game.”
“Kyla is not quite in the right condition right now, so we’re happy that Ella stepped up.”
De Jesus, anchoring the floor from the second to the fifth sets, led the way with 19 excellent digs while Galanza added 17. On the offensive side, meanwhile, Tots Carlos, Alyssa Valdez, and Galanza made the most of their touches with a combined 70-point eruption.
For a team as talented as Creamline, not one player has a fixed hold on any role, and Meneses is pleased with the selflessness still present in the team’s ranks no matter how many championships and individual awards they hoard through the years.
“There are no problems here because the players are not jealous of one another,” he said.
“It’s not all about scoring where we help one another,” Carlos added in Filipino. “Everyone gives great energy, the coaches keep advising, and the players who don’t play that much observe the game and tell us what to do. It’s all a team effort.”
Especially now with only foreign teams left on its semifinals schedule, Creamline can certainly put the new challengers off guard by deploying more secret weapons in their arsenal like De Jesus, Michele Gumabao, and Risa Sato.
In team sports, reliable role players are always the needed variables to complete a winning formula. More often than not, star players are just one part of the equation. – Rappler.com
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