IN conferences past, Akari and Capital1 were nowhere near any PVL playoff conversations.
But at the end of the 2024 PVL Reinforced Conference preliminaries, the two former cellar-dwellers emerged as the league’s biggest surprise packages searching for fairytale endings to their impressive runs.
READ: It's Creamline vs Petro Gazz as PVL do-or-die phase begins
Ready to play the villain roles, however, are a young Farm Fresh side that found its way to playoff contention just in the nick of time and an ever-dominant Cignal team that won seven of its eight pool play matches.
Here’s what awaits PVL fans on opening day of the knockout quarterfinals:
Akari out to prove worth
To go eight-of-eight in the preliminaries, a feat only done twice prior since the league turned pro in 2021, requires more than just a few strokes of luck.
But it took a handful of major team changes to make a two-year-old dream much more attainable this time around.
The addition of Japanese coach Taka Minowa, American import Oly Okaro and the fearsome foursome of Ivy Lacsina, Kamille Cal, Dani Ravena and Cams Victoria ushered in a show-stopping renaissance that put the league on notice.
Now, their first crack at proving their worth in the playoff stage will be against the team that sealed their 8-0 prelims record to perfection in Farm Fresh.
In only her second conference as a Charger, a veteran of the game in Grethcel Soltones knows well enough that there won’t ever be any easy paths to championship gold.
“Itong 8-0, part lang talaga siya ng process eh. Hindi siya ‘yung talagang ‘‘yun na ‘yun.’ Kahit nag-8-0 tayo ngayon, wala pa ring kasiguraduhan.
“Sabi ko nga sa kanila, ‘wag maging complacent dahil wala pa kaming nahahawakan na dapat hawakan.”
Capital1’s here to play, and possibly stay
It’s not every day that there’ll be a turnaround in form quite as drastic and scintillating than that of Capital1.
Just two conferences and roughly seven months in, the Roger Gorayeb-led Solar Spikers managed to transform a one-win debut conference into a playoff-bound sophomore campaign in the blink of an eye.
A trailblazing import in Russian ace Marina Tushova not only etched her name in the annals of Philippine volleyball with two record-breaking scoring performances, but has done the heavy lifting in Capital1's march to the knockout stage.
But it will take more than just Tushova’s scoring brilliance to go all the way.
With a world-class import in MJ Perez and the rest of the HD Spikers lurking on the opposite side of the net come the quarterfinals, the Capital1 spikers understand they have the work cut out for them.
And as Cignal eyes redemption from its runner-up finish in the last Reinforced Conference two years ago, every single Solar Spiker needs to be at their very best to avoid a repeat of their four-sets loss to Cignal in pool play.
“Kaming maga locals, kailangan naming mag-step up. Kailangan naming mag-double time sa training para ‘di lang palagi na kay Marina ‘yung attacks. Kailangan naming mag-contribute nang maayos sa pag-score, pagpalo,” team captain Jorelle Singh stressed.
“Kulang pa ‘yung ginagawa namin pero nandu’n na kami. Kumbaga, one game at a time, tinutulungan namin siya at iniimprove namin ‘yung mga sarili namin.”
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