In just a few days, volleyball fans will once again be celebrating top notch action on the Teraflex as the 2018 Chooks-To-Go Philippine Superliga (PSL) Invitational Conference opens on Saturday at the Smart Araneta Coliseum. Ten teams, plus the newly formed women's national squad, will see action in the tournament which lasts until early August.
Perhaps the biggest revelation was announced just last week when PSL Vice President Peter Cayco bared that the Philippines' representatives to the 18th Asian games this August in Indonesia and the Asian Women's Volleyball Cup on September in Nakhon Ratchasima, Thailand will be taking part to further enhance the final stages of their training before heading to the competition in Simprug, South Jakarta.
While many are excited about the prospect of watching the national team in action, Alyssa Valdez and Jia Morado won't be able to see action against PSL teams due to a scheduling conflict with their Premier Volleyball League (PVL) mother team, Creamline.
The duo were named to the final 12 last week with F2 Logistics vocal leader Aby Maraño, who was anointed as team captain by newly appointed head coach Shaq de los Santos. In fact, six members of the team come from F2 with skipper Cha Cruz-Behag, Kim Dy, Majoy Baron, Kim Fajardo and libero Dawn Macandili joining Maraño in the lineup.
Foton has the sister tandem of Din-Din Santiago-Manabat and Jaja Santiago while the Petron Blaze Spikers also have two representatives in team captain Ces Molina and Mika Reyes. A third Petron player in veteran playmaker Rhea Dimaculangan and Cocolife's lone representative in floor defender Den-Den Lazaro were named as reserves and will be seeing action in Thailand where a 14-player roster is allowed.
PSL officials pointed out that-akin to the PBA All-Star Week-the national players will be suiting up for their respective mother teams when their games are held. That bolsters a unique problem when the nationals face the Cargo Movers with only eight active players.
The games of the national team against the PSL squads will not be counted in the official team standings for the tournament.
Also intriguing is the presence of two collegiate teams in the returning University of the East (UE) still under the banner of Cherrylume (their backer during the 2017 All-Filipino Conference) and the debuting University of the Philippines (UP) being backed by United Auctioneers (UA) as they follow in the footsteps of the University of Perpetual Help System DaLTa (UPHSD) in 2016 (then under New San Jose Builders). The Lady Altas also joined the All-Filipino Conferences in the last two seasons as Amy's Kitchen while the University of Santo Tomas (UST) took part in the recently concluded Grand Prix under the auspices of Victoria Sports.
The Lady Warriors will officially be the youngest team in the competition with no player being above the age of 21 while the Lady Maroons will be bringing back Tots Carlos and Isa Molde from Foton to join forces with the regular varsity team under Kenyan mentor Godfrey Okumu.
But perhaps the biggest newsmaker during the short break was the signing of Lady Eagles Jho Maraguinot and Bea de Leon who will be going up against each other for the first time since their storied UAAP careers.
Maraguinot, who hails from Batangas, will be suiting up for the Sta. Lucia Lady Realtors while the 5'11" De Leon will fortify an already towering frontline for Foton. Both still have one year of eligibility left in the UAAP but have already opted to join the big girls in the Home of the Elite.
It will be an open field for the title as defending champions Cignal HD will still be without two of its main guns with national team mainstay Jovelyn Gonzaga and former San Beda ace Janine Marciano still recovering from season-ending knee surgeries, but head coach Edgar Barroga has already intimated that skipper Rachel Anne Daquis will be carrying the scoring load this conference.
Opening day will feature a short ceremony followed by the tiff between Generika-Ayala versus UA-UP (Angeli Araneta going up against her former college team) before the showdown between F2 and Foton with the Cargo Movers' six national team members against the Tornadoes' ultra-long frontline.
Everything starts at 3 p.m. and all games will be aired LIVE on ESPN5, Aksyon TV, Hyper HD and ESPN5.com.