PVL Reinforced Conference set to open on July 16

MANILA – The Premier Volleyball League (PVL) Reinforced Conference will have a new format when it kicks off on July 16 at the PhilSports Arena in Pasig City.

The 12 participating teams will be divided into two pools based on their rankings in the All-Filipino Conference, which was held from February to May.

Champion Creamline, Chery Tiggo, Farm Fresh, Galeries Tower, Nxled and PLDT are in Pool A, while Petro Gazz, the reigning Reinforced champion, is in Pool B along with Akari, Capital1, Cignal, Choco Mucho and ZUS Coffee.

The preliminary phase will have two stages. In the first round, teams in each pool will play a single round-robin format. In the second round, the top three teams from Pool A will face the bottom three from Pool B in Pool C, while the top three squads from Pool B will compete against the lower-ranked teams of Pool A in Pool D.

After the preliminaries, the teams will be ranked using the FIVB Classification System. The top eight will advance to the knockout quarterfinals with the winners moving to the semifinals, which will also be decided in a do-or-die match.

The top two teams after the semis will compete in a winner-take-all gold medal match, while the losers will battle for bronze. The PVL Reinforced Conference will have three games in the preliminary phase.

Playing on opening day are the Galeries Tower Highrisers against the Nxled Chameleons at 2 p.m.; Chery Tiggo Crossovers against the Farm Fresh Foxies at 4 p.m.; and the Creamline Cool Smashers against the PLDT High Speed Hitters at 6 p.m.

The imports are Katherine Bell (Chery Tiggo), American Erika Staunton (Creamline), Russian Lena Samoilenko (PLDT), Brazilian Monique Helena (Galeries Tower), American Oly Okaro (Akari), Russian Marina Tushova (Capital1), Venezuelan MJ Perez (Cignal), Greek Zoi Faki (Choco Mucho), and Japanese Asaka Tamaru (ZUS Coffee), while Petro Gazz has yet to name its import as of press time. (PNA)