by Kristel Satumbaga
Imports will provide extra excitement when the Premier Volleyball League Reinforced Conference fires off on Sunday at The Arena in San Juan City.
BaliPure will have Montenegro’s Danijela Dzakovic and Slovakia’s Alexandra Vajdova, BPI-BanKo Perlas will be bannered by American hitter Lakia Bright and Turkey’s Yasemin Yildirim, Motolite has Cuban Gyselle Franco and Bosnian Edina Selimovic, PetroGazz has United States’ Janisa Johnson and Cuba’s Wilma Salas, and Pacifictown Army has Ukrainian Olena Lymareva and American Jenelle Jordan.
Sports Vision President Ricky Palou and tournament director Tony Liao said their International Transfer
Certificates (ITC) will arrive this week, thus guaranteeing stiff competition.
Creamline’s main spiker Alyssa Valdez expects a rough sailing this time due to the presence of foreign reinforcements as well as coaches.
For one, Chinese Li Huanning will be calling the shots for the Creamline while a Thai mentor has been tasked to turn BanKo’s fortunes around.
“It’s going to be an interesting and competitive conference for us, but hopefully, our maturity and experience will be an advantage in keeping our title,” said Valdez in the PSA Forum at Amelie Hotel.
Creamline opens its title quest at 4 p.m. against PetroGazz, while returning Pacifictown Army and BaliPure raise the curtain at 2 p.m.
Matches will be played on Wednesdays, Saturday and Sunday under a double-round elimination format with the top four teams facing in the best-of-three semifinals. Championship matches will also be played in a best-of-three format.
