IT will soon be the Premier Volleyball League's (PVL) turn to welcome prospects to the pros through a new pipeline in its inaugural draft, tentatively set in June shortly after the ongoing 2024 PVL All-Filipino Conference.
Although the final draft guidelines have yet to be released, the PVL confirmed back in its season-opening press launch that the primary requirement for draft eligibility is to be at least 21 years old on draft day regardless of educational status and attainment.
Several possibilities remain open for who could enter the first-ever draft, including the prospect of having Fil-foreign players onboard to join the likes of PLDT's Fil-Canadian ace Savi Davison and Petro Gazz' Fil-American hotshot Brooke Van Sickle.
READ: Alyssa Solomon says she patterns her game after Ara Galang
But when it comes to homegrown collegiate talent, the UAAP has since been the hotbed of up-and-coming volleyball talents who went on to make names for themselves in the country's first and only professional volleyball league to date.
Moreover, the NCAA and Maharlika Pilipinas Volleyball Association (MPVA) also stand as formidable stomping grounds that have also produced PVL-bound aces in years and conferences past.
SPIN.ph picked five notable standouts from a vast pool of talent across the board who could soon make the move to the pros and be among the inaugural PVL Draft's potential first-rounders.
BELLA BELEN (NU)
UAAP women's volleyball's first-ever rookie MVP has been on a league of her own numbers-wise as National University looks to win the title for the second time in three seasons.
At just 21 years old, the NU-Nazareth School standout already has an esteemed silverware collection from the juniors to the college ranks alongside multiple stints with the Philippine national team.
Back when she was still at NSNU, Belen racked up two season MVP nods and top outside hitter plum in her final year before moving up to the seniors team. She was also part of the Lady Bullpups side that bagged silver in the 2019 Asean School Games.
The international stage isn't an unfamiliar one for Belen, who was tapped to play alongside senior stars for sixth-placer Rebisco-Philippines in the 2021 Asian Women's Club Volleyball Championship and, not too long ago, was part of the national team for the 2023 Southeast Asia (SEA) V. League.
And in what has been an unprecedented championship run in Season 84 when NU swept all 16 games en route to its first title in 65 years, Belen completed a hat-trick of individual accolades by winning MVP, Rookie of the Year and 1st Best Outside Hitter honors.
With redemption in sight, Belen sharpened her two-way game with a near-triple-double elimination round statline of 14.7 points, 11.4 digs and 9.4 receptions across 14 matches played. The penultimate hurdle for the twice-to-beat Lady Bulldogs and their title aspirations: Far Eastern University in the Final Four.
ANGEL CANINO (LA SALLE)
From one rookie MVP to another, Angel Canino didn't take long to make a lasting impression with the dynastic 12-time UAAP women's volleyball champions De La Salle Lady Spikers.
Down from the depths of a crushing Season 84 defeat to NU, Canino's arrival gave new life to the Taft Towers as they soared right back to the title series in a rematch with the Lady Bulldogs — one they were able to sweep in two games.
A championship-laden Season 85 campaign marked the dawn of a new era for La Salle volleyball with a star born in Canino, who took home the trifecta of awards that Belen copped the season prior.
Hailing from Bacolod Tay Tung High School before suiting up for the green-and-white for the first time with De La Salle-Zobel, the 20-year-old Bacolodnon ace earned her first sporting breakthrough when she was crowned MVP of the 2018 Palarong Pambansa girls' volleyball for the National Capital Region.
Prior to what has been a decorated UAAP career thus far, Canino has already tested the waters as a national team member in the Under-23 level during the 2019 Women's Volleyball Kor Royal Cup in Thailand and a silver-medal finish at the Asean School Games in the same year.
Albeit Final Four-bound, Season 86 has been an injury-marred one for the reigning MVP as problems on her right arm saw her miss La Salle's last five prelims matches. Canino averaged 20.4 markers in only eight games played to date, but is expected to return at a later stage in the Lady Spikers' title-retention bid.
ALYSSA SOLOMON (NU)
NU's multi-awarded, towering opposite hitter in Alyssa Solomon also has a strong case to be an early draft pick should she decide to turn pro by the end of Season 86.
Individual honors were aplenty for the 22-year-old, Sta. Rosa, Laguna native, with two Palarong Pambansa MVP nods, a UAAP juniors' Rookie of the Year plum and multiple best opposite spiker awards in every tournament she's played in from high school to the international stage.
PHOTO: UAAP Season 86 Media Team
Aside from an illustrious Season 84 title run with the Lady Bulldogs, Solomon scored a trailblazing feat back in the 2023 SEA V. League where she was hailed the regional meet's top opposite spiker to join the ranks of Asian volleyball greats Chatchu-on Moksri, Jarasporn Bundasak and Piyanut Pannoy.
Like Canino and her NU teammate Belen, Solomon was part of the silver-winning 2019 Asean School Games side. She, however, previously competed in the 2017 edition of the tournament in which the Philippines took home the bronze.
In NU's ongoing bid to win back the UAAP crown it lost last season to La Salle, Solomon carries a 14-game elimination round average of 14.7 points and 4.1 digs as the Lady Bulldogs seized the top seed for the second time in three seasons.
THEA GAGATE (LA SALLE)
When it comes to defensive prowess, there hasn't been a middle blocker in the college ranks who has the stature and dominance Thea Gagate has brought to the table for La Salle three full seasons in as a Lady Spiker.
The 6-foot-3, 23-year-old Cebuana defender won the best middle blocker nod in every major competition she's participated in — from the UAAP Season 79 girls' volleyball tournament and back-to-back wins in her first two seasons with La Salle.
Gagate made her UAAP debut in a short-lived Season 82 tournament cut short by the pandemic before entering the title series in her rookie year when UAAP action resumed come Season 84.
It may have been a heartbreaking runner-up finish at the hands of her former NU-Nazareth high school teammates Belen and Solomon, but Gagate gained a measure of revenge by reclaiming the crown just one season later.
In the midst of an indefinite injury-prompted absence of La Salle's leading scorer in Canino, Gagate stepped up to the challenge of ramping up the Lady Spikers' depleted offense and has averaged 11 markers on top of a league-leading 0.81 kill blocks per set in the 13 prelims matches La Salle has played to date.
DETDET PEPITO (UST)
As is the case with Gagate and her net defense, University of Sto. Tomas' libero-captain Detdet Pepito continues to be an unassailable floor general for the title-seeking Tigresses in UAAP Season 86.
PHOTO: UAAP Season 86 Media Team
Prior to a historic campaign in the making for UST, Pepito has won the best libero plum in all five seasons she played in the UAAP girls' volleyball tournament from 2017 onwards. Her individual success continued with the seniors' squad as she copped the same honor in Season 85.
The 5-foot-2 skipper stands at the defensive lynchpin of the undersized Tigresses side in Season 86 who, as the leader of the pack, embodied the team's 'heart over height' mantra in a school-best 8-0 start to the season. The team is a win away from a Top Two prelims finish entering the Final Four.
With one prelims match left against their Season 85 semis tormentor and defending champion La Salle, Pepito leads the league in receptions with 13.9 per game on 58.3% efficiency and sits second in digs with 16.8 per game and 4.19 per set.
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