Cool Smashers embrace expectations with Jaja on board

Jaja Santiago (second from left) adds a lot of ceiling to Creamline’s front line. —PVL IMAGES

VICTORIAS, Negros Occidental—Jaja Santiago-Minowa is determined to make the most of her limited time with Creamline when the PVL Invitationals fires off next week at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.

“The Invitational will be different because we’ll be facing teams from Vietnam and Thailand,” Minowa said in Filipino. “The On Tour has been good preparation for us because we still have a lot of adjustments to make.”

Minowa, a Filipino-born Japanese citizen, made her PVL comeback after five years and showed flashes of her dominant form in her Cremaline debut, helping the team to a 25-21, 25-16, 25-21 sweep of Galeries Tower in the PVL On Tour on Saturday night at the Victorias City Coliseum.

The 6-foot-5 middle blocker, who last played in the PVL under a bubble setup and won the title with Chery Tiggo in 2021 in Bacarra, Ilocos Norte, enjoyed her comeback in Negros.

She also admitted missing the kind of support Ilonggos showered her with after the game.

More importantly, Minowa reacquainted herself with the PVL style of play in time for the Invitationals, where Creamline will face defending champion PLDT, Nxled and Farm Fresh, as well as guest teams Thailand’s EST Cola and Vietnam’s Ho Chi Minh City.

“We’re not perfect, and there are still many things we need to polish. We’ll do our very best in the invitational. The schedule will be tight, so hopefully everyone can recover well every day and every game,” said Minowa, who scored six points on 13 attack attempts.

The former league MVP, who will fly to the United States to see action in League One Volleyball with the San Francisco Signal in January, vowed to leave everything on the floor in her lone conference with the Cool Smashers, who are raring to regain the Invitationals title after their grand slam in 2024.

“We’ve experienced something similar before during the first PVL [pro conference], when we had games back-to-back. The important thing is figuring out how to recover after the first game, the second game and the games that follow. The skills are already there, but managing the fatigue and knowing how to maximize your recovery time is the challenge because you have another game the next day,” Minowa said.

“We’re also trying to strengthen our connection as a team and support one another. Volleyball isn’t an individual sport. We have to work together and help each other, and we’ll do our very best in the invitational.”

Creamline coach Sherwin Meneses seeks to maximize the height advantage and experience of the Japan SV.League import, who won a championship and was named Best Blocker twice in the Japanese league.

“Jaja’s [skill] is already there. We only need to work on how she fits into our system, especially the tempo of our game,” Meneses said in Filipino.

“Of course, we’re excited because it’s Jaja Santiago. But what we really want is to build better chemistry within the team, especially with the invitational coming up. That’s the most important thing because the team already has the skills. With Jaja, it can make things easier for us, but only time will tell.”

Meneses is aware of the high expectations that come with a tall international player joining his 11-time champion team. And they are ready to embrace them.

“Now that Jaja is with us, we’re not going to take her presence for granted. We’ll continue working hard. Creamline is supportive of Jaja, and Jaja is also supporting Creamline—that’s really our goal,” he said.