One of the three live Premier Volleyball League teams has already committed to the national cause.
PVL president Ricky Palou confirmed on Monday that PLDT already expressed its intention to represent the Philippines in the Asian Volleyball Confederation (AVC) Cup should the HD Spikers win the Invitational Conference.
“Actually umoo na ang PLDT. So (kung) mag-decline yung number one, pwede naman yung number two,” Palou confirmed.
Meanwhile, Cignal and Creamline – who are still in finals contention – have yet to make a decision.
Last Saturday, the league announced that Kobe Shinwa Women’s University has decided to pull out from the semifinals of the Invitationals after one of its players yielded a positive COVID-19 RT-PCR result.
This started a wave of unfortunate events that saw the Philippine National Volleyball Federation cut the core of National University from the Philippine team that is set to represent the country in the AVC Cup.
The National team was supposed to fill in for Kobe Shinwa in the Invitational Conference — as recommended by head coach Jorge Souza de Brito — but NU women’s volleyball team manager Engr. Bing See Diet did not give his players the green light to suit up in the tournament.
PNVF President Tats Suzara eventually made the call to remove the Lady Bulldogs composed of Mhicaela Belen, Alyssa Solomon, Jennifer Nierva, Ivy Lacsina, Camilla Lamina, Joyme Cagande, Cess Robless, Evangeline Alinsug, Shaira Jardio, Sheena Toring, Nicole Mata, and Kamille Cal from the pool. NU head coach Karl Dimaculangan was also axed from the coaching staff.
With this, the best local team from the Invitationals will now represent the country in the continental tourney.
Palou also said that the federation is also considering the possibility of reinforcing the PVL representative with players from other clubs.
“Actually, ang gusto namin, ang pinaguusapan namin now is kung sino ‘man ang team na yun, baka they wanna reinforce (their team) with other players ‘di ba? Para mas maganda, mas malakas,” said Palou, who is also the treasurer of the PNVF.
“If there is enough time for them to work together, I think they’ll have a week only, baka naman feasible yun, ‘di ba? So pinagaaralan pa namin.”
Suzara, meanwhile, will request the representative to include the two non-NU players in the national team namely Trisha Genesis of Akari and Jelai Gajero of California Precision Sports to be included in the AVC line-up.
Creamline (3-0) is ahead of the standings while PLDT (2-1), KingWhale Taipei (1-0), and Cignal (1-2) follow suit.
Army-Black Mamba, meanwhile, could not muster a win in four games to bow out of the competition.
The AVC will take place from August 21 to 29 at the Philsports Arena in Pasig.
