HEAD COACH: Rald Ricafort
2024-25 PVL AFC: 8-3 (lost to Choco Mucho in quarterfinals)
IMPORTS: Savi Davison (OH; Philippines, Canada), Wilma Salas (OH; Cuba)
LOCALS: Kath Arado, Majoy Baron, Fiola Ceballos, Erika Santos, Angge Alcantara, Kim Fajardo, Kianna Dy, Dell Palomata, Mika Reyes, Jovy Prado, Kiesha Bedonia, Nieza Viray
POOL PLAY MATCH SCHEDULE (Pool D)
- PLDT vs QUEENSLAND PIRATES (Australia) - April 20 (Sunday), 7 p.m.
- PLDT vs NAKHON RATCHASIMA (Thailand) - April 22 (Tuesday), 4 p.m.
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AFTER a late call-up as the Philippines’ third representative, PLDT will only field two out of a maximum of three imports for the 2025 AVC Women’s Champions League from Apr. 20 to 27 at the Philsports Arena.
One of whom is already a ‘local mainstay’ in the PVL in 26-year-old Fil-Canadian winger Savi Davison who was recently named one of two best outside hitters in the 2024-25 PVL All-Filipino Conference.
READ: Why BVS, Savi, MJ are considered imports in AVC but not in PVL
It might not have been the team result she would’ve wanted after an early playoff exit, but Davison blazed a historic trail of her own to cement her status as one of the most prolific scorers the league has ever seen.
Her 296 points in prelims play, norming 26.9 per game, was the most produced by any player in the PVL’s eight-year history.
She also topped the spiking department (39.35 percent efficiency), ranked fourth in blocking (0.63 blocks per set) and fifth in receiving (27.98 percent efficiency) — second-overall among non-liberos behind Creamline’s Jema Galanza (30.74 percent efficiency).
Help is on the way
The absence of a steady and consistent backup on offense has plagued PLDT since Davison’s arrival late in 2023.
But come their international debut, having a proven winner and an equally lethal attacker onboard might just be the help Davison has longed for.
It is no other than multi-awarded 33-year-old Cuban spiker Wilma Salas.
PLDT’s 6-foot-2 attacker will don a different shade of red this time after playing two prior stints in the PVL with fellow AVC competitor and newly-crowned All-Filipino Conference champion Petro Gazz.
Her first taste of Philippine volleyball ended with a touch of gold back in the 2019 Reinforced Conference where the Angels won their first franchise championship in a three-game finals comeback over another AVC rival in Creamline.
There, she was feted as the conference’s best foreign guest player.
Come her second stint five years later, fate swung the wrong way for Salas and the Angels after an early playoff exit in the quarterfinals to the Cool Smashers.
Yet she was still among the conference’s top performing reinforcements upon ranking second overall in spiking (38.16 percent efficiency) and eighth in the league in scoring (171 points; 24.43 per game).
With an intact local core, PLDT has its sights set on claiming two huge scalps in reigning Australian champions Queensland Pirates (Apr. 20; 7 p.m.) and perennial Thai powerhouse Nakhon Ratchasima (Apr. 22; 4 p.m.) in Pool D for one of two quarterfinals spots.
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