The quest for the finals seats intensifies as four teams clash in a pair of sudden-death battles in the Premier Volleyball League (PVL) Season 2 Reinforced Conference today at the Filoil Flying V Centre in San Juan.

Top-seed Creamline and No. 4 Pocari-Air Force dispute the first finals slot at 1:45 pm while No. 2 PayMaya and third-ranked BanKo-Perlas collide at 3:45 pm.

Creamline rebounded from its straight-set loss to Pocari in Game 1 with a 25-16, 26-24, 22-25, 25-17 victory last Wednesday, putting the Cool Smashers’ drive for a breakthrough victory back on track.

Unlike in the series’ opener, top spiker Alyssa Valdez drew solid backup from the team’s other stalwarts, including Michelle Gumabao, who atoned for a five-point output in Game 1 with a top-scoring 18-hit effort.

Thai reinforcement Kuttika Kaewpin also scored 14 points after struggling for six and fellow import Laura Schaudt settled down from a measly one-hit game last Sunday with 10 points.

“Everybody really wanted to win,” said Valdez, who turned in the team’s only double-digit output in Game 1 with 16 then followed it up with 15 points.

“We actually talked about our Game 1 loss and we made the adjustments. We showed that in Game 2 and we hope to sustain it in the do-or-die.”

But the Lady Warriors are also expected to fight back in a bid to keep their title-retention drive going with import Arielle Love eager to atone for her nine-hit effort in the loss after exploding for 20 in the series’ opener.

Fellow import Maddie Palmer and Myla Pablo have been dishing out consistent games but the likes of Jeanette Panaga, Del Palomata, Iari Yongco and Wendy Semana must also step up to foil the Cool Smashers’ bid.