Creamline’s Staunton raves about 'most fun volleyball environment ever'

MANILA, Philippines – Erica Staunton was left in awe after experiencing her first Creamline vs Choco Mucho match-up during the ongoing 2024 PVL Reinforced Conference on Saturday night at the Mall of Asia Arena.

Staunton, who is also in her first stint of pro volleyball, said that it was a unique experience to perform in front of a packed stadium. More than 9,000 fans went out to support the Rebisco teams in an exciting three-set match.

“Honestly, that was like some of the most… I mean hands down the most fun volleyball environment that I have ever been a part of,” said Staunton.

The American hitter is a product of the University of Georgia, and experiencing firsthand the love of Filipino fans for volleyball, she wanted to take it all in even as the pressure mounted for the Cool Smashers in their chase for the quarterfinals.

“So I knew coming into it that there were gonna be a lot of fans, there were gonna be a lot of eyes watching. I kinda just wanted to focus on enjoying it because you never know if I’m ever gonna play in a crowd like that again,” she said.

But more than the fans, Staunton just wanted to enjoy volleyball. Knowing that the fans loved the sport as much as she did, she wanted to focus on the important things and not get too worked up with the hype from the stands.

“It’s just really enjoying the moment and then I had a coach, when I was like my last year in college at Georgia who kinda had this one saying, I hope I get it right, it’s play for the two, not for the 30,000. Basically 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, so I'm just trying to get back into that,” said Staunton. 

“We’re playing the game that we love no matter how many are watching, so that kinda 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.”

It was a daunting task to sign on with the team that is arguably the biggest in Philippine volleyball. But after more than a couple of games under the scrutiny of Creamline fans, she said she was finally getting the hang of it.

“I think like going back two months ago to when I first got here, I think it was a little bit daunting just hearing about how many fans Creamline has and just like their history of success. So I think there was a little bit of pressure, also this being my first pro league coming out of college. So definitely, two months ago I think it was a little bit daunting but I think I came into the best program that I possible could for that sort of environment because one of the first things they said to me was just they have no added pressure, Creamline just plays like they wanna keep it fun, they wanna keep it light,” she said. 

“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.”

Staunton hopes to carry Creamline farther as they prepare for the quarterfinals. They have one more game remaining in preliminaries when they face the ZUS Coffee Thunderbelles on Thursday, August 22, at the FilOil EcoOil Centre in San Juan.