Creamline outside hitter Jema Galanza revealed the reason why she switched jersey numbers after the Cool Smashers' debut victory over Petro Gazz in the 2022 Premier Volleyball League Invitational Conference, Tuesday.
"Twenty-three," said Galanza. "Siguro new start, new life, and gusto ko lang maging tahimik yung life ko, maging happy."
The 2019 PVL Open Conference Most Valuable Player already changed her number a couple of times during her volleyball career.
She wore numbers 12 and 8 in Adamson and carried the latter when he made the jump to Creamline before eventually switching to 15.
Galanza, on her first game sporting number 23, dazzled for the Cool Smashers and scored 17 points coming from 15 attacks and two kill blocks to go along with 14 excellent digs. She led her side to a 25-22, 23-25, 25-22, 25-20 win over the Angels.
Creamline had to overcome a gritty Angels team in the opener, erasing an eight-point deficit through a 21-10 end before eventually doing almost the exact same thing in the third to take a 2-1 series lead.
The Cool Smashers then bagged the game in set four, capitalizing on a 13-5 blast to fend off Petro Gazz completely.
According to Galanza, experiencing such things early in their campaign will only help them fine tune their game even more heading into the crucial stages of this short, but competitive conference.
"Siguro maganda rin na makita namin yung mga pagkakamali namin [sa] first game namin para mai-tama namin sa susunod kasi sobrang halaga ng mga games ngayon kasi single round lang."
