PVL getting bigger, stronger

MANILA, Philippines — A pair of new teams, a record number of participants, a couple of foreign coaches plus two female ones, and a perennial champion seeking to extend its reign will spice up the Premier Volleyball League’s season-ending Second All-Filipino Conference unfurling on Sunday at the Smart-Araneta Coliseum.

Creamline, which topped the first All-Filipino Conference early this year and finished runner up in the Invitationals months later, has remained the team to beat despite losing top setter Jia de Guzman, who was recruited by Denso Airybees in Japan.

The Cool Smashers tackle the vastly improved Choco Mucho Flying Titans, their sister franchise, in the main offering of a triple bill at 7 p.m. eyeing to extend the former’s record seventh title.

Creamline has also made it to the podium in all the 12 conferences it participated since joining the league six years ago.

Apart from their championships, they also have three runner-up finishes and the same number of third-place efforts.

The Nxled Chameleons and Galeries Tower Highrisers will be the two new teams that hiked the league’s total number of participants to 12 – the highest since the league turned pro three years ago.

Nxled will usher in the conference against a Gerflor team mentored by multi-titled Sammy Acaylar at 3 p.m.

It will be followed by the PLDT-Cignal showdown in a sibling rivalry set at 5 p.m.

The Highrisers take the floor versus the Petro Gazz Angels at 7 p.m. on Tuesday also at the Big Dome.

Interestingly, Galeries Tower will have coach Lerma Giron, who will be the second female to get a coaching job in the PVL next to F2 Logistics Regine Diego.

Nxled has one of the league’s two international coaches after tapping Japanese Takayuki Minowa, who happens to be former Chery Tiggo star Jaja Santiago’s fiancée.

The other foreign mentor is Jorge Souza de Brito, who will be handling the Akari Chargers.

“It’s going to be an exciting season,” said newly appointed PVL competition director Sherwin Malonzo, who was joined by commissioner Tonyboy Liao and Cignal’s Sienna Olaso and Carissa Guilas during the launch.