MANILA, Philippines — The battle between the Choco Mucho Flying Titans and the Akari Chargers will highlight the opening of the Premier Volleyball League (PVL) 2026 All-Filipino Conference at the FilOil EcoOil Center on January 31.
The 6:30 p.m. match serves as the main event of a double header set to be kickstarted by the Galeries High Towers and Cignal Super Spikers at 4 p.m.
The Choco Mucho-Akari clash is expected to be a tightly-contested one, typifying a competitive field for the lone conference of the season with an expected conclusion on April 28.
With the players of Chery Tiggo and last year's 2-time champ Petro Gazz moving to different clubs following the exit of their respective teams, the field has gotten more balanced.
PVL control committee chairman Sherwin Malonzo believed this is the case for the league, saying games are going to be more exciting.
"With Petro Gazz and Chery Tiggo leaving, their players were distributed to the 10 teams," said Malonzo at the league's kickstart presser at the Discovery Suites Wednesday.
"Given that distribution of talents, I expect that this won't be a walk in the park for all these teams. This conference is going to be more exciting, more long games."
PVL president Ricky Palou echoed the same sentiment.
"We expect all the teams to do better this year. As Sherwin said, we expect a really good and exciting conference."
The Dante Alinsunurin-mentored Choco Mucho bolstered its lineup with the return of Sisi Rondina and the signing of Eya Laure.
Rondina missed the Invitational and Reinforced conferences last year, focusing on the national beach volleyball team that won a breakthrough gold at the Southeast Asian Games in Thailand last month.
Laure returned to the league after sitting out for over a year following her departure from Chery Tiggo.
Meanwhile, the Tina Salak-mentored team added former Crossovers Cza Carandang and Jyne Soreno as well as Mary Rhose Dapol.