MANILA, Philippines — Creamline import Erica Staunton relished playing her first-ever rivalry game against sister team Choco Mucho, describing it as “most fun volleyball environment” in her career.

The American spiker rose to the occasion in front of an ecstatic 9,429 fans at Mall of Asia Arena, leading Creamline’s third-set comeback from a 14-23 deficit to complete a 25-16, 25-19, 31-29 sweep of Choco Mucho and qualify to the quarterfinals in the 2024 PVL Reinforced Conference on Saturday evening.

In her first overseas stint and most attended volleyball game after her stint with the University of Georgia, Staunton remained focused amid the exciting and thrilling game atmosphere to lead the way for the Cool Smashers with 19 points. 

READ: PVL: Playoffs-bound Creamline sweeps Choco Mucho

Staunton on her first Creamline vs Choco Mucho. #PVL2024 @INQUIRERSports pic.twitter.com/oyRu8YZDvq

— Lance Agcaoili (@LanceAgcaoilINQ) August 17, 2024

“That was hands down the most fun volleyball environment that I have ever been a part of. I knew coming into it that there were gonna be a lot of fans, there were gonna be a lot of eyes watching. I kind of just wanted to focus on enjoying it, because you never know if I’m ever gonna play in a crowd like that again. So it’s just really enjoying the moment,” said the 24-year-old spiker, who has been leading Creamline in the absence of Tots Carlos, Alyssa Valdez, and Jema Galanza.

Staunton turned to the lesson from her college coach to overcome the pressure from the jampacked game attendance.

“I had a coach, when I was my last year in college at Georgia, saying, it’s play for the two, not for the 30,000. You’re playing the same game whether it’s like your two best friends are watching in the gym and you’re playing loose, playing to have fun. You’re playing the same game as if you’ve been playing in front of 30,000 people. We’re playing the game that we love no matter how many are watching,” she said. “That kind of helped settle the nerves a little bit and then just really like embracing the number of fans that are here that loves Choco Mucho and Creamline. It’s just honestly incredible, the amount of people that love volleyball in the Philippines. It’s great.”

Staunton said she already learned to embrace the daunting task of playing for the most successful PVL club and one of the fan favorites.

“Creamline just plays like they wanna keep it fun, they wanna keep it light, and so there’s a reason why so many people love Creamline, so many fans love Creamline, and why they’re so successful so I came into a program that just really made sure to emphasize that they’re putting no extra pressure on me and to just go out there and have fun, enjoy the moment, enjoy being with my teammates, so that’s what I’ve focused on in the past couple of months,” said the young PVL reinforcement.

READ: Creamline continues rise as Erica Staunton finds her niche

That’s why when the Cool Smashers trailed the Flying Titans by nine in the third, Staunton knew that they would find a way to fight back through their team effort. 

“I think the whole time we kind of believed that we could make the comeback no matter how big the deficit got. We had faith in each other and just in our team that if we got our heads up and just kept working point by point, I think we knew that we’re gonna come out of it,” she said. “I think we knew that energy and momentum would be a huge part of that comeback. We made sure that we kinda kept that and worked towards that so that was probably just the biggest thing, playing united and playing point by point.”

With a 5-2 record at No.3 tied with Chery Tiggo and PLDT, Creamline wraps up its second round against the winless ZUS Coffee on Thursday at FilOil EcoOil Centre in San Juan City, hoping to improve its seeding before the knockout quarterfinals.