TOP team PLDT aims to open its 2026 Premier Volleyball League (PVL) All-Filipino Conference round-robin semifinals campaign with a bang as its battles 10-time league champion Creamline on Saturday at the Mall of Asia Arena in Pasay City.
Game time is 6:30 p.m.
The High Speed Hitters finished the preliminary round as the top seed with a 7-2 record.
The Cool Smashers, on the other hand, tallied 6-3 in the elims and went through the knockout qualifying round to reach the final four.
The Rald Ricafort-mentored PLDT will lean on the prolific Savi Davison, who ranks third in scoring with 185 total points, headlined by 165 successful spikes.
The Filipino Canadian will get support from Mika Reyes, Kianna Dy and Alleiah Malaluan who also contributed to the team’s offense in the qualifying round.
Creamline, on the other hand, defeated the gutsy Akari Chargers in four sets last Tuesday and was the last team to book a semifinals ticket.
Alyssa Valdez showed her vintage form after leading the statistical sheet with 20 points even as Bernadeth Pons chipped in 13 points for Creamline.
Creamline head coach Sherwin Meneses can also rely on three-time Most Valuable Player (MVP) Tots Carlos, Jema Galanza and Michele Gumabao for points, not to mention the playmaking skills of Jia de Guzman and Kyle Negrito.
“It feels great. Like coach said, our goal really was to make it to the semis. I’m happy that the coaches put their trust in me, and I’m glad we got the win today because we really worked hard for it,” Negrito, the team’s main setter in its must-win game against Akari.
Ahead of PLDT-Creamline clash, the Farm Fresh Foxies and the Cignal Super Spikers collide at 4 p.m.
The Foxies, under head coach Koji Tsuzurabara, will make its debut in the semifinals since joining the league in 2023.
Farm Fresh’s high-leaper Trisha Tubu and setter Alohi Robins-Hardy will try to overcome the challenge from Cignal’s Vanie Gandler and playmaker Gel Cayuna.
The semifinals will be a round-robin format with the top two teams advancing to the best-of-three finals.
Teams are ranked using the FIVB Team Classification System, where the number of matches won, match points, set ratio, and point ratio will be considered.
