TWO of the Premier Volleyball League's (PVL) top three draft picks won't be seeing action just yet in the upcoming Reinforced Conference.
ZUS Coffee's Thea Gagate and Galeries Tower's Julia Coronel will have to wait a bit before making their debuts in the pro league in light of their commitments to Alas Pilipinas.
Next on the nationals' competition calendar is the Southeast Asian (SEA) V.League, with Leg 1 slated on Aug. 2 to 4 in Vietnam and Leg 2 from Aug. 9 to 11 in Thailand.
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The Philippine National Volleyball Federation (PNVF) is expected to release all Alas players back to their mother teams at the conclusion of the regional conclave's final leg on Aug. 11.
All PVL teams are mandated to release players called up to the national team since the Reinforced Conference falls on an international window.
It will be up to the PVL clubs, in particular, on whether they'll field their national team aces straight away as league play will already be at Round 2 of preliminaries action by then.
Coronel set her priorities straight ahead of the overlap period between the PVL Reinforced Conference and the national team calendar.
"For the meantime, since it is national team season, I’m really hoping to prioritize my duties as a national team player," the Alas playmaker said.
Gagate added: "I’m not really sure as to what I could say but hopefully, everything’s fine."
The PVL's first import-laden conference in two years will get underway on July 16 and will run until Aug. 31 before the two-week Invitationals on September featuring the top four local teams and two foreign guest sides.
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