PLDT High Speed Hitters Open Title Defense Against Thailand's EST Cola in PVL Invitational
Key Takeaways
- •The PVL Invitational, the league's only conference open to foreign clubs, begins Monday at the Smart Araneta Coliseum with three matches.
- •Defending champion PLDT debuts acquisition Leila Cruz and opens its back-to-back title bid against Thailand's EST Cola.
- •All six teams will play six matches over nine days, a compressed schedule that penalizes slow starts.
- •Creamline will use Sachi Minowa, formerly Jaja Santiago, against Nxled, which fields Brooke Van Sickle and veteran Gel Cayuna together for the first time.
- •Vietnam's Ho Chi Minh Volleyball Club meets Farm Fresh in the 6:30 p.m. nightcap.
Games on Monday (Smart Araneta Coliseum)
- 1:30 p.m. – EST Cola (Thailand) vs PLDT
- 4 p.m. – Nxled vs Creamline
- 6:30 p.m. – HVF (Ho Chi Minh) vs Farm Fresh
The wait is over as the PVL Invitational gets underway on Monday at the Smart Araneta Coliseum, with defending champions PLDT launching their title-retention bid against a dangerous EST Cola squad from Thailand, while Creamline deploys Sachi Minowa to counter Brooke Van Sickle and Nxled.
The Invitational format is the Premier Volleyball League's lone conference that opens its doors to foreign clubs, a setup that gives local teams rare competitive exposure against squads from the region's traditionally strong volleyball nations such as Thailand and Vietnam.
The PLDT High Speed Hitters will introduce their new prized acquisition, Leila Cruz, the second overall rookie draft pick by Capital1 two years ago, when they face the Thais in their 1:30 p.m. match. A victory would set the back-to-back title aspiration of the franchise in motion.
"It would be survival of the fittest," said PLDT team manager Bajjie del Rosario, describing the short but intense conference in which all six participants will play six matches over a nine-day span.
The compressed schedule leaves little room for slow starts, as each of the six matches counts toward the standings and setbacks are difficult to recover from within such a brief window.
The Manny V. Pangilinan-owned franchise is also eyeing its third crown in the league, which would include last year's PVL on Tour title, when it was still a regular conference.
"We will be more determined to defend that," said PLDT coach Rald Ricafort.
The Creamline Cool Smashers, for their part, will have Ms. Minowa — also known as Jaja Santiago — on their side in their 4 p.m. showdown with the Nxled Chameleons, a club aiming to eclipse its franchise-best fifth-place finish in the All Filipino Conference early this year.
Ms. Minowa, who has built her career in recent years playing professionally in Japan's V.League — where she adopted her married name Sachi Minowa — saw some action, though minimal, in the 11-time champions' straight-set win over Galeries Tower last week in Victorias City, Negros Occidental, where she demonstrated why she is regarded as one of the best, if not the best, players the country has produced.
It remains to be seen how Creamline will fare against an Nxled team fielding Ms. Van Sickle and newly acquired veteran Gel Cayuna together for the first time.
Rounding out the heavy triple-match offering, Ho Chi Minh Volleyball Club from Vietnam takes on Farm Fresh at 6:30 p.m.
— Joey Villar
