Fiery duels up in PVL Invitationals

Games Saturday

2:30 p.m. – Cignal HD vs Army 5:30 p.m. – Choco Mucho vs Chery Tiggo

COACHES of the seven local squads priming up for the Premier Volleyball League Invitationals all agree the battle will be tight and fierce with no team holding a distinct advantage over the other when the mid-season conference is fired off Saturday at the Filoil Flying V Arena in San Juan.

While Cignal HD mentor Shaq delos Santos guarantees his wards’ readiness after losing steam in the stretch of the PVL Open Conference, he said his team is all geared up for a duel of power and style with the best and the brightest.

“We prepared hard for this conference, so you may consider us as one of the teams to beat. But all teams have also toughened up, so it will all depend on game-situations,” said delos Santos, whose HD Spikers have lorded it over the field in pool play and in the quarterfinals of the season-opening conference before blowing a 1-0 lead and eventually bowing to the Petro Gazz Angels in their best-of-three semifinal series.

“But it will be fierce since everybody would want to win given the single round elims format. We really have to dish out our best since only four (teams) will advance,” he added.

Unlike in previous conference which featured pool plays, all seven teams are grouped in one in the Invitationals with the top four teams advancing to the next stage where Japan’s Kobe Shinwa Women’s University and Chinese-Taipei’s Taipei King Whales will join the qualifiers in another round-robin competition.

“All teams are intact and have leveled up, so I guess everybody has a chance,” said Choco Mucho coach Oliver Almadro. “So we really have to be fit and focused given the high level of competition.”