THE last few stops of the 2025 PVL on Tour bring a series of decisive knockout matches to determine this year’s preseason queens.
Following the knockout quarterfinals, all four matches decided in straight sets, four league giants are on a collision course at the Smart Araneta Coliseum, each one eyeing a shot at the ‘On Tour’ crown.
READ: PLDT looking to follow up on recent success against Creamline
PLDT, Creamline, Cignal and Chery Tiggo also comprised this year’s quartet of local teams headed to the 2025 Invitational Conference later this month.
Only PLDT has yet to lose a single match in the tournament, with just one set dropped.
Standing in its way is 10-time PVL champion Creamline, which has a rare three-game head-to-head losing streak to PLDT that has spanned nearly two years.
Meanwhile, the penultimate roadblock in Cignal’s quest for a second PVL Finals trip in the last three tournaments is a Chery Tiggo side that hasn’t reached the podium since winning the inaugural pro league title in 2021.
Will a familiar name reach the PVL mountaintop again or will it be a preseason of historic firsts and breakthroughs?
Here’s all you need to know ahead of a pulsating knockout semifinals twin bill on Tuesday.
CHERY TIGGO vs. CIGNAL
August 12 | Tuesday | 4 p.m. | Smart Araneta Coliseum
- All-time head-to-head record: CTC 6 - 6 CHD
- CHERY TIGGO: Won 2 of last 3 matches vs CHD
- CIGNAL: 3-0 vs CTC in playoff matches
HEAD-TO-HEAD RECORD:
- 2021 OC: CTC def. CHD 3-0
- 2022 OC: CHD def. CTC 3-1
- 2022 IC: CHD def. CTC 3-0
- 2022 RC: CTC def. CHD 3-1
- 2022 RC: CHD def. CTC 3-0 (semifinals)
- 2023 1AFC: CTC def. CHD 3-0
- 2023 2AFC: CTC def. CHD 3-2
- 2023 2AFC: CHD def. CTC 3-1 (battle for third, Game 1)
- 2023 2AFC: CHD def. CTC 3-1 (battle for third, Game 2)
- 2024 AFC: CTC def. CHD 3-0
- 2024-25 AFC: CHD def. CTC 3-1
- 2025 TOUR: CTC def. CHD 3-1
The retooled HD Spikers won five of its six preseason matches to date, led by its newest power hitter and 30-point club member in ex-PLDT ace Erika Santos.
In fact, Santos is the league’s leading scorer with 87 total points (14.5 per game) and top spiker with a 37.50 percent success rate.
The only team to have dealt Cignal defeat in the preseason tour? Chery Tiggo.
After a 3-0 start to pool play, the Crossovers dispatched Santos & Co. in a 25-13, 26-28, 25-15, 25-15 romp in Passi City, Iloilo.
There, Chery Tiggo rookie winger Renee Penafiel poured in 18 points along with the league’s second-leading scorer Cess Robles’ 14-point, 14-dig double-double.
Santos was Cignal’s lone double-digit scorer in the loss, also with 14 markers.
By the end of the preliminaries, Cignal secured one of two outright semis tickets in Pool B while Chery Tiggo had beat Galeries Tower first in the knockout round in straight sets to enter the knockout quarterfinals.
A pair of quick sweeps over the Akari sister-team stable, with Cignal beating Akari and Chery Tiggo routing Nxled, set up a high-stakes semis grudge match.
While their all-time head-to-head record stands even at 6-6, with Chery Tiggo winning two of their last three meetings, Cignal has never lost to Chery Tiggo in the three times they met in the playoffs.
Will that streak end or extend on Tuesday?
CREAMLINE vs. PLDT
August 12 | Tuesday | 6:30 p.m. | Smart Araneta Coliseum
- All-time head-to-head record: CCS 8 - 3 PLD
- CREAMLINE: Won first 8 matches vs PLD
- PLDT: Won last 3 matches vs CCS
HEAD-TO-HEAD RECORD:
- 2021 OC: CCS def. PLD; 3-0
- 2022 OC: CCS def. PLD; 3-0
- 2022 IC: CCS def. PLD; 3-0
- 2022 IC: CCS def. PLD; 3-2 (semifinals)
- 2022 RC: CCS def. PLD; 3-1
- 2023 1AFC: CCS def. PLD; 3-0
- 2023 IC: CCS def. PLD; 3-0
- 2023 2AFC: CCS def. PLD; 3-0
- 2024 AFC: PLD def. CCS; 3-1
- 2024 RC: PLD def. CCS; 3-2
- 2024-25 AFC: PLD def. CCS; 3-2
As of the last year or so, PLDT has had Creamline’s number.
Ending a two-year, eight-game head-to-head skid to the 10-time PVL champions was no easy feat, let alone to top it up with the only active win streak against Creamline.
In those three wins, it also took herculean scoring efforts from resident Russian import Elena Samoilenko and Fil-Canadian winger Savi Davison to deal the Cool Smashers a rare hat-trick of losses.
Fast forward to preseason play, the High Speed Hitters have been an impenetrable force as the league’s lone unbeaten team in six matches with just one set loss to Creamline’s sister team Choco Mucho.
On paper, PLDT has taken an ideal path towards a first-ever PVL Finals appearance.
That pristine record came in spite of Davison’s absence for the most part in the preliminary round, having made her first preseason start only in PLDT’s knockout quarterfinals rout of ZUS Coffee.
Just one full game in, Davison picked up from where she left off with a staggering 28-point performance.
In a six-game stretch, PLDT has proved that it can rack up the wins with either a single go-to scorer in Davison or a balanced a well-distributed offense with the likes of Kiesha Bedonia, Jovy Prado and Kianna Dy.
None of them are even in the top 10 preseason scorers, with Dy the lone PLDT entrant in the spiking department at fifth overall (35.54 percent success rate).
On top of that, four of the league’s leading blockers are from PLDT with Majoy Baron (first) and Mika Reyes (third) joining Bedonia (seventh) and Dy (tenth).
Even with a rare pair of losses already, Creamline was still able to extend its perfect semis streak at 18 straight conferences by sticking with its veteran guns.
Michele Gumabao and Alyssa Valdez have showed the way for the Cool Smashers on the scoring front, with Gumabao seventh in scoring and 10th in spiking while Valdez ranked seventh in spiking and 10th in scoring and receiving.
Along with current top setter Kyle Negrito (6.74 excellent sets per set) and second-leading middle blocker Pangs Panaga (0.79 blocks per set), will Creamline pass its toughest test yet and return to its championship playground for the eighth straight conference?
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