AS expected, Bella Belen is Capital1’s first overall pick in the 2025 PVL Rookie Draft.
The three-time UAAP MVP was absent from draft night proceedings, being in the middle of Alas Pilipinas’ ongoing campaign at the 2025 AVC Women’s Volleyball Nations Cup in Hanoi, Vietnam.
Joining her there is national team mentor and her soon-to-be Solar Spikers head coach Jorge Souza de Brito, who took the reins from Roger Gorayeb shortly after the two-day draft combine.
A club hastily built from scratch early in 2024, Capital1 carried a lowly 7-24 win-loss record in the three PVL conferences it has so far played in the league under Gorayeb’s tutelage.
As such, Belen, arguably among the best college volleyball players of the present generation, will usher in a new era for a year-old Capital1 team that has longed for a ‘game-changing talent’ to turn its dismal fortunes around.
From one UAAP standout to another, Galeries Tower picked up Far Eastern University standout Jean Asis as the No. 2 pick overall.
True to Highrisers coach Lerma Giron’s word, last conference’s surprise quarterfinalists used their selection to secure the services of a top-notch middle blocker.
Farm Fresh then closed the chapter to a controversial saga when it selected Alohi Robins-Hardy at No. 3.
Rounding out the first four selections is Ateneo captain Lyann de Guzman who becomes Nxled’s choice at No. 4 after losing the draft lottery despite having the best odds of landing the top pick.
Another Blue Eagles ace in AC Miner emerged as an early first-rounder at No. 5 for ZUS Coffee before fellow middle blocker and former National U skipper Erin Pangilinan was drafted sixth by Cignal
Alas Pilipinas' Fil-American setter Tia Andaya became a surprise selection for Choco Mucho with the seventh pick and is now the team's fourth playmaker along with Mars Alba, Deanna Wong and Jem Ferrer.
A pair of La Salle wingers made the early cut at eighth and ninth in Chery Tiggo's Baby Jyne Soreno and PLDT's Alleiah Malaluan, respectively.
FEU spiker Chenie Tagaod rounded out the top 10 upon being chosen by Akari.
At No. 11, Former Lady Spikers setter Julyana Tolentino was the lone draft pick of reigning All-Filipino Conference champion Petro Gazz.
Creamline landed the services of head coach Sherwin Meneses' former Lady Bulldogs ace in Sheena Toring with the 12th overall pick.
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