PVL draws foreign teams in pocket tourney

MANILA, Philippines — The Premier Volleyball League will hold a pre-season tournament comprising of its top teams Creamline, PetroGazz and BanKo Perlas against three foreign squads on the second week of April.

According to league sources, the pocket tournament will consist of one team each from Australia, Vietnam and Taipei apart from the Cool Smashers, the Open Conference Champions, the Angels, the Reinforced Conference titlists and the Perlas Spikers.

The six-team meet will either be played at the Flying V Centre in San Juan, Ninoy Aquino Stadium or Rizal Memorial Coliseum in Manila or the PhilSports Arena in Pasig City where the men’s and women’s volleyball games of the 30th Southeast Asian Games were held last December.

“The PVL will be inviting one squad each from Australia, Vietnam and Taipei and it’s the PVL’s way of saying that the 2020 season is upon us,” a source yesterday told The STAR.

Alyssa Valdez and Jema Galanza, the Reinforced and Open Conference MVPs, respectively, are expected to draw the crowd as they spearhead a loaded Creamline squad that includes Michele Gumabao, Julia Morado, Risa Sato and Melissa Gohing, among others.

PetroGazz, for its part, has leveled up by recently adding former league MVP Grethcel Soltones and Jerrili Malabanan, formerly from the PLDT squad in the Philippine Superliga, and Ivy Perez, who last suited up for Foton, also in the PSL.

Soltones, Malabanan and Perez now join Cherry Rose Nunag, Djanel Cheng, Paneng Mercado, Jeanette Panaga, Maricar Baloaloa, Jonah Sabete and Jovielyn Prado in the team that made it to both the Open and Reinforced finals.

As in the past, the PVL will have three seasons starting with the Reinforced Conference in the third week of May, followed by the Open and Collegiate Conferences slated simultaneously in mid-June.

It is tentatively set at the PhilSports Arena.

Meanwhile, Chef’s Classic has joined forces with the Philippine Army for the Reinforced Conference with high hopes of contending against the big guns.

Last season, Chef’s Classic had its own team while the Lady Troopers were then partnered with PacificTown.