Philippine National Volleyball Federation National Team commission head Tony Boy Liao revealed on Tuesday that the federation has invited 22 collegiate players to form the Philippine women’s national volleyball team pool for the upcoming 2022 Asian Women’s Volleyball Cup this August.
“The PNVF board has decided that for the upcoming AVC Cup, which will happen from August 21 until the end of August, we will be choosing players from the collegiate level because of the problem with the training (schedule) of the national team,” said Liao during the PVL Invitational Conference launch at Century Park Hotel.
According to Liao, the federation’s decision to stick with collegiate stars for this tournament is based on schedule.
With the Invitationals set to unfold this July, the PVL stars – which represented the country in the 31st Southeast Asian Games – will only have a week or less of preparation for the AVC. The UAAP, meanwhile, ended just a week ago with National University breaking a 65-year drought via a 16-0 sweep of the tournament.
Already part of the national team pool are NU’s Kamille Cal, Mhicaela Belen, Ivy Lacsina, Alyssa Solomon, and Jennifer Nierva; Ateneo’s Faith Nisperos; and UST’s Eya Laure, Imee Hernandez and Bernadette Pepito.
“If we will get players again from the PVL, since we have the ongoing Invitationals, they won’t have time to train for the national team like what happened in the SEA Games. So, tapos na ang UAAP, I think the players from the collegiate level will have more time to train with the national team,” said the PVL’s tournament director.
Liao said that invites have already been sent to the selected collegiate players.
“We are just waiting for the reply of the universities of those who were invited then they will be released kasi hindi naman namin pwedeng sabihin na ‘amin na ‘yan [players].’ So far naman, a lot of them favorable dahil nga nabibigyan ng magandang experience, training, meron silang international exposure,” said the long-time volleyball executive.
The Philippines is in Pool A along with China, South Korea, Iran, and Vietnam while composing Pool B are Japan, Thailand, Kazakhstan, Chinese Taipei, and Australia.
The AVC Cup will be held in Manila from August 21 to 28.
