Creamline in rare underdog status vs Choco Mucho

MANILA, Philippines – For the first time in a long while, the Creamline Cool Smashers, the Premier Volleyball League’s dynastic champions, will come in as the underdogs entering the All-Filipino Conference semifinals unfolding Tuesday at the PhilSports Arena.

But it will be a folly to count the seven-time league champion out.

Creamline, which is making a record 14th straight postseason appearance, should continue to rely on its vast playoff phase experience as it clashes with sister team Choco Mucho in Tuesday’s start of the single-round robin format semis unfurling at 4 p.m.

Forget about the proud franchise’s surprisingly forgettable performance in the elimination round where it wound up as the fourth and last-seeded team among the semis entrants — the club’s worst since winding up fifth in its maiden conference seven years ago when the league employed a quarterfinal playoff format back then.

Petro Gazz, Choco Mucho and Chery Tiggo all wound up with identical 9-2 cards, with the Angels taking the top seeding and the Flying Titans and the Crossovers the second and third spots, respectively.

Creamline, however, will get a fresh reprieve as all semifinalists will start from zero and will have an equal chance of claiming one of the two slots to the best-of-three championship round.

An interesting plot though is the possibility of Creamline playing minus its top gun in Tots Carlos as the power-hitting former league Most Valuable Player could skip this one out to attend the Korean V-League Asian Quota combine for rookie applicants set April 29 to May 1.

Mylene Paat has already confirmed she would miss Chery Tiggo’s duel at 6 p.m. with Petro Gazz while MJ Philips of the Angels, the only other applicant, was given an exception since she had already played in the league last year for Gwangju Al Peppers.

That meant Creamline coach Sherwin Meneses might dig deeper to his bench for him to fill the massive void that Carlos would leave if she were indeed absent.

Meanwhile, the Angels should come in the heavy favorites to hurdle the Crossovers with the news of Philips suiting up and Paat being gone.

Philips already made a smashing comeback in Petro Gazz’s 22-25, 25-23, 25-23,