National U21 men’s volleyball tourney fires off

MANILA, Philippines — The road to the FIVB Volleyball Men’s World Championship (MWCH) 2025 in September will be ushered in by two international and two domestic competitions and the national teams in both indoor and beach volleyball seeing action in more than a dozen competitions overseas.

Action starts Wednesday, January 29, with eight teams seeing action in the inaugural Philippine National Volleyball Federation (PNVF) Under-21 Championship National Men’s Division at the Ninoy Aquino Stadium.

The teams are divided into two groups in the preliminary round with Volleyball Never Stop (VNS) Club and Silay Volleyball Club (SVC) clashing in the first game at 9 a.m. followed by the  11:30 a.m. duel between Zamboanga City and Lingayen in Group A.

Umingan Volleyball Club (UVC) and Notre Dame of Dadiangas University (NDDU) kick off Group B hostilities at 2 p.m.  as well as City of Naga-Cebu Volleyball Club (CNV) and University of East (UE) at 4:30 p.m.

“The Under-21 championship is part and parcel of the national team  program that aims to maintain the production line of talents for international competitions,” said PNVF head Ramon “Tats” Suzara, also the president of the Asian Volleyball Confederation (AVC) and executive vice president of the International Volleyball Federation or FIVB.

The preliminaries will continue on Friday while the semifinals are set Saturday and the final on Sunday in the championship supported by Akari, Philippine Sports Commission, Philippine Olympic Committee, Meralco, PLDT, Smart, AyalaLand, Nuvali, Mikasa, Senoh, Asics, Rebisco, Cignal, OneSports, OneSports+ and Pilipinas Live.

Also in the domestic radar are the National Beach Volleyball Championships in February and the Second AVC Beach Tour-Nuvali Open in April both at the Nuvali Sand Courts in Santa Rosa City.

Nuvali will also be the venue for the FIVB World Beach Pro Tour Futures.

The Philippines will host the men’s world championship for the first time from September 12-28 at the Smart Araneta Coliseum and Mall of Asia Arena.