EVEN with ten holdovers from its 2023 champion team, reigning PVL Invitational Conference titleholder Kurashiki Ablaze wasn’t spared from first-game jitters.
Ablaze ran a perfect six-game sweep of the 2023 Invitationals, capped by a five-set win over the league’s winningest club Creamline in the knockout championship game.
Since then, Kurashiki lost four key players including former PVL best outside hitter Tamaru Asaka who went on to play as a reinforcement for ZUS Coffee before joining Farm Fresh in a last-minute call-up for the 2024 Invitationals.
Another key loss was deputy coach Shota Sato who had taken over the reins for Farm Fresh and led them to an eighth-place finish in the Reinforced Conference.
Kurashiki’s most blazing change yet
With all the changes, one positive change that the club had was bringing over 28-year-old Malaysian-Taiwanese spiker Low Mei Cing on the team.
Cing’s entry breaks an all-Japanese squad it once bannered during its unbeaten title run in 2023 and she made a strong impression from the get-go in Ablaze’s 25-20, 25-18, 23-25, 25-21 win over Thai debutant EST Cola.
Ching had herself a solid PVL debut with 22 points anchored on 19 attacks, two aces and a block, but those impressive numbers didn’t come easy as she admitted that there were nerves – considering that it’s her first act for the Japanese club, with it being on foreign soil no less.
“Of course, we are nervous. But in the second and third (sets), we are already better. I think because some of us are new members (of the team) inside the court, everybody is looking for our game so we were a bit nervous,” she said.
“But so far in Manila, I think we can get more experience because this is our first game in the Philippines. I think in the second game, we can be better and better.”
Just four more wins now separate Kurashiki from becoming the second PVL team to sweep back-to-back editions of the same conference.
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