ALYSSA Valdez and Jaja Santiago spearhead the 16-woman training pool for the women's volleyball team seeing action in the Hanoi Southeast Asian Games in May.
The two were the frontliners in the list bared by the Philippine National Volleyball Federation (PNVF) on Tuesday.
This will be the fourth SEA Games stint for Creamline star Valdez, while Santiago, who is currently playing for Saitama Ageo Medics in the Japan V.League, will be back in tow for the biennial meet after skipping the 2019 offing.
Volleyball Thailand League Best Scorer Mylene Paat also lead the holdovers together with Kat Arado, Dawn Macandili, Aby Marano, Ria Meneses, and Ces Molina.
Those ladies are out for redemption after finishing fourth in the last SEA Games in Manila.
Jema Galanza gets a callup to the national pool.
Majoy Baron, who was snubbed in the initial 20-person list, was included in the pool, together with first timers Jema Galanza, Dell Palomata, Kat Tolentino, Deanna Wong, and Iris Tolenada, and high school standings Jelai Gajero and Casiey Dongallo from California Academy of Antipolo.
This group will travel to Brazil on April 12 to prepare for the upcoming matches in Hanoi.
"We’re going on the other side of the globe to have a two-week extensive training just before the SEA Games," said PNVF president Tats Suzara.
The Philippines last won the SEA Games women's volleyball in the 1993 edition in Singapore and has not made the podium since bagging bronze in 2005 here in the country.
Surprisingly, the names of Fil-Am spiker Kalei Mau, Nakhon Ratchasima reinforcement Dindin Santiago-Manabat, Champions League MVP Kianna Dy, and setters Jia Morado-de Guzman and Jasmine Nabor were absent from the pool as they all begged off from national team duties.
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