Creamline's Valdez finds home court anywhere with devoted fan base

The mountain venue sits nearly at the peak, far enough from the city that most people wouldn't bother making the drive. Yet on a Saturday in Cagayan de Oro, nearly ten thousand people had done exactly that. They filled the Aquilino Q. Pimentel International Convention Center to watch Creamline Cool Smashers play PLDT, and the noise they made—the deafening cheers, the electric energy—belonged entirely to the visitors.

Creamline swept the match 25-23, 25-21, 25-19, extending their unbeaten streak to seven games in the 2023 PVL second All-Filipino Conference. Alyssa Valdez, the three-time Most Valuable Player and one of the country's most recognizable volleyball players since her college days at Ateneo, finished with 13 points and 10 excellent receptions. Jema Galanza played alongside her. But the real story wasn't the score. It was that 9,682 people had driven to a mountain-top venue in a provincial city to watch a team from Manila, and in doing so, had turned the place into Creamline's home court.

This wasn't the first time. Creamline had traveled to Batangas the month before, and wherever they went—Manila or the provinces—the same thing happened. Their fans followed. The winningest club in PVL history carried their crowd with them like a portable advantage, and it seemed to work. Valdez spoke about it with genuine gratitude, not as a player commenting on logistics but as someone who understood what the effort meant. She had played her first full game of the tournament in Cagayan de Oro, and the fans had inspired her to a level of performance she might not have reached in an empty gym.

"It doesn't get tiring to play and improve our craft because of them," Valdez said, speaking in her native language. "I think it gives them joy, it gives us joy. That's what we want—to make the people watching happy. It's beautiful that we can come together through sport." She acknowledged the specific sacrifice: the drive to a remote venue, the effort families and friends had made to be there. "Honestly, it's very far and it's almost on top of a mountain so we didn't really expect that everyone would drive going here as a family and as friends. We thank all of the fans here in CDO for their warm welcome."

Creamline's coach, Sherwin Meneses, echoed the sentiment. He praised not just the fans but the entire operation—the hotel, the hospitality, the venue itself. "Their venue is beautiful," he said. "They really took care of us from the hotel until our game. They prepared well for this. We're thankful for CDO and then we also got a win. It was a great experience."

But Valdez was thinking beyond this one match, beyond Cagayan de Oro. She wanted more provincial games, not just for Creamline but for all PVL teams. The logic was simple and idealistic: when young people in other parts of the country see volleyball being played at the highest level, when they see the sport celebrated in their own cities, they begin to imagine themselves playing it too. Right now, volleyball's center of gravity in the Philippines is Manila. Valdez wanted to shift that, to show teenagers in Cagayan de Oro and Batangas and other provinces that the sport belonged to them as much as it belonged to the capital.

"Hopefully, we can go to more provinces so young people become aware that they can also play volleyball and other sports as well," she said. "I'm looking forward to seeing them and hearing them cheer our team and other teams." It was an appeal for expansion, for the sport to grow roots beyond its traditional stronghold. And it was grounded in something she had just experienced: the power of a crowd that had driven to a mountain to watch her play.