PVL looms as battle of chemistry

Creamline head coach Sherwin Meneses sees the season-opening Premier Volleyball League All-Filipino Conference as a battle of team chemistry with only the club showing solid jelling and consistency emerging on top.

The offseason arms race saw interesting — and controversial — player movements, system changes as well as entry of two more expansion squads.

Skills-wise, the 12 participating teams have beefed up their rosters with the addition of key pieces that made the mad scramble for the crown an even race.

It will now all boil down to which team will quickly bond and adjust given the short time of preparation before the action begins on 20 February.

The defending champions acquired middle blocker Bea de Leon as a replacement for former Finals Most Valuable Player Ced Domingo, who transferred to Akari, and libero Denden Lazaro-Revilla.

"All teams will have the same adjustments like us because of new players coming in. It will take new players time to adapt to the system," Meneses said during the seven-time PVL champion's contract renewal signing with sponsor Allianz PNB Life Insurance, Inc. on Thursday at the Aster Events Place in Mandaluyong City.

"I think all teams will have the same challenge on how to make their new players jell with the team."

Creamline has always relied on its familiarity and chemistry to lord it over the competition.

Aside from a star-studded roster led by their three-headed monster in Alyssa Valdez, Tots Carlos and Jema Galanza, the Cool Smashers also took advantage of their intact core through the years in collecting titles.

Creamline has completed three perfect championship runs including the 2023 season-ending 2nd All-Filipino Conferences where it swept all 15 games punctuated by a historic five-set Finals Game 2 win over sister-team Choco Mucho witnessed by a record 24,459 crowd inside the Smart Araneta Coliseum.

Despite the addition of recruits from Flying Titans and still missing the services of now Japan-based setter Jia Morado-De Guzman, Meneses remains confident that chemistry won't be a problem for the Cool Smashers.

"Our chemistry is great. Our new players may not have spent a lot of time with the team inside the court but outside volleyball they know each other well, especially Alyssa with (former Ateneo de Manila University teammates) Bea and Denden," Meneses said.

"But of course, we're still working on familiarity, especially with the new players and I don't think we'll get that in just three weeks. Hopefully, we'll see their impact soon. As of now, we're training as a system as well as monitoring the health of our players," he added.

Creamline renewed its partnership with Allianz, the official worldwide insurance partner of the Olympic and Paralympic Movements, while Choco Mucho inked a deal with the company as its newest brand ambassador.