JUMPING over three teams ahead of it in the 2024 Premier Volleyball League Reinforced Conference rankings, it's Farm Fresh that'll replace PLDT in the oncoming 2024 Invitational Conference.
This, after PLDT’s request to forgo the Invitationals from Sep. 4 to 12 was granted by the PVL. The High Speed Hitters' reasoning were rest and recuperation in light of multiple injuries, and not because of their junked post-game protest following their controversial semifinals loss to Akari.
READ: PLDT pulls out of PVL Invitational - but not because of controversial loss
“(Farm Fresh) will be participating in the tournament,” an unimpeachable source told SPIN.ph.
The Foxies ended up being the replacement team over higher-seeded squads Chery Tiggo at No. 5, Petro Gazz at No. 6 and Capital1 at No. 7 after the three aforementioned teams declined the league's invite, most of which citing the unavailability of their overseas-bound foreign guest imports.
But even the Foxies themselves may have to look elsewhere for a new import to fill in the shoes of Colombian spiker Yeny Murillo for the Invitationals as she has left the country.
Eighth-seeded Farm Fresh carried over a 3-5 pool play record into the quarterfinals where they fell at the hands of the still-unbeaten, top-seeded Chargers, 25-17, 18-25, 22-25, 23-25.
Breath of (Farm) Fresh air
But in a surprise turn of events, they’ll be the ones taking the High Speed Hitters’ vacated spot and will join Cignal and Reinforced Conference finalists Creamline and Akari as the four-team local contingent.
Foxies head coach Shota Sato will soon square off with his former Japanese team and reigning Invitational Conference champion Kurashiki Ablaze, with whom he was once a deputy coach when they won the title in 2023.
Completing the new six-team Invitationals field is Thailand’s EST Cola, a former co-champion in the now-defunct Philippine Superliga (PSL) back in 2016 led by now-Galeries Tower import Sutadta Chuewulim and Thai national team mainstay Jarasporn Bundasak.
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