Vintage Alyssa Valdez and her fair share of pains

MANILA, Philippines — While a force to be reckoned with inside the court, volleyball icon Alyssa Valdez has always kept it real and showed vulnerability when she looks back on her years as an athlete.

Having played for 20 years, "The Phenom" is back to square one, aiming to improve and recover after a minor injury that led to her missing the previous two conferences with Creamline.

"Well, I would say how hard it was. Coach Sherwin (Meneses) gave me tips, he was also stressed out. During our training,I am also the target. Honestly, that is one of the important things, improving my digs, service, and receive. He actually tells me, and it works," she said.

"My inspiration is my teammates since they always targeted me in our practices every single day, and my teammates' effort and their patience," she added.

The 31-year-old spiker has been in the limelight since her collegiate years at Ateneo De Manila University up to her professional and national stints. Valdez was teary after her double-double performance of 19 points, and 17 excellent digs in Creamline's win over Galeries last Thursday.

"We'll take it one game at a time. I think one of the skills that we need to improve in our system is our blocking. I guess we're going to work on our counterattacks, and basics. We should have a discipline in our system," she added.

"We'll work on our attacks and our basic balls."

Creamline took the top seed of the PVL standings with a 10-win-loss card and will face the bottom team Nxled (1-10) in the qualification round.