THE inaugural six-team play-ins cast of the 2024-25 PVL All-Filipino Conference will feature a fair share of cellar dwellers and a pair of shell-shocked higher ranked squads forced to take the long way round for a quarterfinals seat.
Come the next three match days, the six teams split into two pools of three must win each of their two play-in matches by as big a margin as possible to stake their claim on one of two remaining playoff berths.
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The winner of Pool A among Cignal, ZUS Coffee and Capital1 will advance to the playoffs as the 7-seed set to take on 2-seed Petro Gazz — currently on a league-best 10-game win streak — in the best-of-three quarters.
One of Farm Fresh, Chery Tiggo or Nxled over in Pool B will take the 8-seed for a rather undesirable date against five-peat-seeking, top-ranked defending champion Creamline.
On the flip side, however, lies an equally promising prospect for all six play-in teams.
The four teams that won’t make it out of the play-ins will automatically be the draft lottery sides for the second PVL Draft in June wherein a handful of college volleyball’s finest stars are set to stack this year’s rookie pool.
While winning remains the clear-cut option in the play-ins, ‘tanking’ might just entice a few play-in teams in pursuit of long-term star power.
To preview the PVL’s first-ever play-ins, here’s a quick rundown of how the matchups in each pool played out back in the preliminary round.
Will the play-ins mirror the prelims or will a few curveballs spice things up in the home stretch of the playoff race?
POOL A: Cignal, ZUS Coffee, Capital1
PRELIMS HEAD-TO-HEAD RECORDS:
- CIGNAL (2-0): 3-set win vs CAPITAL1; 4-set win vs ZUS COFFEE
- ZUS COFFEE (1-1): 3-set win vs CAPITAL1; 4-set loss to CIGNAL
- CAPITAL1 (0-2): 3-set loss to CIGNAL; 3-set loss to ZUS COFFEE
Still stomped from falling on the wrong side of a qualifying-round upset at Galeries Tower’s hands, former 3-seed Cignal now finds itself in a tricky position where it can either still fight for a playoff spot or slot in as a surprise entrant to the draft lottery.
Should the HD Spikers opt to ‘tank,’ it might just be too easy to decipher for PVL fans if the prelims play records were to be taken into account.
Cignal made quick work of both of its Pool A rivals and last year’s top two draft tams in ZUS Coffee and Capital1.
It took down the Solar Spikers in three sets, 25-12, 25-15, 25-17, and the Thunderbelles in four, 25-18, 25-22, 21-25, 25-11.
Between Cignal’s Pool A challengers, ZUS Coffee has a slight upper hand as it not only took a set from the HD Spikers but it also rolled past the Solar Spikers in straight sets, 31-29, 25-15, 25-15.
Hence, Capital1 will have to make up for lost ground after twin prelims losses to both Cignal and ZUS Coffee if it has the playoffs in its sights over back-to-back draft lottery appearances.
If there’s any message the qualifying round sent to the PVL field, more so with Cignal involved, nothing is impossible.
Or better yet, never say never in the play-ins.
POOL B: Farm Fresh, Chery Tiggo, Nxled
PRELIMS HEAD-TO-HEAD RECORDS:
- CHERY TIGGO (2-0): 3-set win vs NXLED; 4-set win vs FARM FRESH
- FARM FRESH (1-1): 3-set win vs NXLED; 4-set loss to FARM FRESH
- NXLED (0-2): 3-set loss to CHERY TIGGO; 3-set loss to FARM FRESH
Just like in Pool A, one team beat the other two, the other had split results and another with twin losses to its play-in rivals back in the preliminary round.
It was Chery Tiggo who had the last laugh on both Nxled and Farm Fresh with a convincing pair of victories.
The Crossovers ran past the rock-bottom Chameleons in a 26-24, 25-15, 25-18 sweep and was followed by a four-set win over the Foxies, 21-25, 25-14, 25-17, 25-20.
Similar to ZUS Coffee’s slate in Pool A, Farm Fresh snatched a set from Chery Tiggo before emerging victorious in a 25-22, 26-24, 25-21 rout of Nxled.
With these in mind, the odds will be heavily stacked against a Nxled team that has only won once in the 12 games it already played this conference.
One of two coveted playoff spots — albeit against Creamline — will surely be a promising prospect for either of these three mid-table teams.
But to become formidable title contenders moving forward, landing an early pick in what is shaping up to be a star-studded draft might just be an outcome that could mark a game-changing pivot for their respective franchises in the near future.
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