TWO fresh faces in PLDT and Chery Tiggo will fight for preseason glory in the first PVL Finals without two of the league’s winningest teams in eight years.
PLDT vs. CHERY TIGGO (Finals)
August 17 | Sunday | 6:30 p.m. | Mall of Asia Arena
Sans Creamline and Petro Gazz, either a first-time or a two-time champion will be crowned in the PVL’s first game back at the Mall of Asia Arena in 11 months.
Before two red teams take aim at title gold, here’s how both the High Speed Hitters and Crossovers paved their paths to breakthrough finals appearances.
Also, we take a look at a few key numbers and records from their head-to-head battles over the last four years before the PVL on Tour finale.
Perfect and promising paths
It might just be the preseason, but PLDT pulled out all the stops to tread a near-perfect road towards its first-ever finals appearance.
The High Speed Hitters passed every test from the preliminaries to the semifinals for a clean eight-game sweep before their potential title-clinching challenge.
In prelims play, sans ace scorer Savi Davison for the most part, PLDT won all five matches with just one set dropped to Choco Mucho.
The Fil-Canadian’s playoff return added fuel to the High Speed Hitters' newfound fire, averaging 31 points in their quarterfinals sweep of ZUS Coffee and semifinals comeback over Creamline.
Chery Tiggo, meantime, was on track for a similar path before stumbling twice late in the preliminaries.
Its first three wins in Pool B were succeeded by back-to-back losses to, ironically, the Thunderbelles and Cool Smashers.
Those two late defeats cost the Crossovers the outright quarterfinals spot it had held onto for most of single round-robin play.
Come the playoff, though, they made quick work of Galeries Tower in the knockout round before routing Nxled in the quarterfinals and scoring a repeat four-set win over Cignal in the semifinals.
Traces of green and yellow
The PVL championship round might be unfamiliar territory, in general, for PLDT and Chery Tiggo, but they do have an abundance of title experience with their respective top guns.
La Salle-slash-F2 Logistics’ decorated player core will be split into a High Speed Hitters quartet and a Crossovers power duo — with all of them having enjoyed success in their glory days in college.
READ: Longtime La Salle, F2 teammates face off in PVL on Tour finals
Kianna Dy, Majoy Baron, Kim Fajardo, and Mika Reyes will be at the forefront of delivering the High Speed Hitters first-ever championship in franchise history, as it missed out on a finals appearance in its first three years as a club in the defunct Philippine Superliga (PSL).
Baron and Reyes are two of the tournament’s three leading middle blockers by the end of prelims play, with Fajardo fifth in setting, and Dy fifth in spiking.
Over on the other side of the court come Sunday are veteran aces Ara Galang and captain Aby Maraño who are out to steer Chery Tiggo to a second PVL crown and win their first pro titles in the process.
Under Maraño’s proven on-court leadership, her longtime teammate Galang has emerged a steady force in the Crossovers’ preseason run, norming 13 points in their two playoff wins en route to the final.
And as far as success in the college ranks and pros go, Chery Tiggo shot-caller Norman Miguel could become the league’s fifth head coach to win it all in the PVL, as well as either in the UAAP or the NCAA.
"Based na rin sa mga past experiences ko na swerteng nagpa-champion, yung connection (talaga ang key). 'Yung connection with the players, sa akin kasi, malaking bagay yun na may na-e-establish kang relationship, although siyempre, hindi siya smooth-flowing," he said.
"Still, hindi mo dapat i-give up yung connection mo sa bawat isa kasi du'n magbi-build yung trust eh."
His counterpart Rald Ricafort, should he lead PLDT to the preseason title, has a chance to become the first PVL head coach to win a championship with two teams (Petro Gazz in 2022) and the third to become a multi-titled mentor in the pros.
"Yung objective naman namin is i-manage yung kailangan i-manage tsaka i-correct yung mga kayang i-correct. Ganun pa rin yung mindset namin [sa finals] na tatrabahuhin pa rin namin yung last game," he said.
"Malaking bagay na maka-prepare at maka-move on at maka-focus kami sa Chery na. Last game na lang. Isa na lang. Isang tiyagaan na lang ulit."
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