FOR the first time in two years, the Premier Volleyball League will welcome imports back to the fray to energize the league alongside the inaugural PVL draftees in the 2024 Reinforced Conference.
Last year, PVL teams were disallowed by the Philippine National Volleyball Federation (PNVF) from securing International Transfer Certificates (ITC) for foreign guest players — a prerequisite for imports to compete in the country.
READ: PVL introduces double-round pool play prelims for Reinforced Conference
This prompted the league to stage two editions of its import-less All-Filipino Conference and an Invitational Conference featuring two foreign guest teams in eventual champion Kurashiki Ablaze (Japan) and Kinh Bac Bac Ninh (Vietnam).
As the dust settles on a year since the ITC debacle prompted by then-national team calendar conflicts, a trip down memory lane offers a firm reminder that the PVL history books have been rewritten a handful of times during the import-laden conference over the years.
And here's four of them to keep an eye on when the one-and-a-half month-long import-laden conference goes underway on Jul. 16 at the Philsports Arena:
PRISILLA RIVERA (Akari)
Most points scored by a player in a single PVL match
No one's done it like 'Mama P' just yet in the PVL.
Ex-Akari import Prisilla Rivera's 44-point masterclasss built on 39 attacks, three blocks and two aces over Choco Mucho in the last edition of the Reinforced Conference in 2022 remain the league's single-game scoring yardstick.
Already 37 during her PVL stint, the three-time Olympian for Dominican Republic shattered a four-year-old scoring record last held by Banko Perlas' American import Lakia Bright (41 points).
However, a chunk of Bright's now-beaten scoring record remains unmatched — one you'll see later on.
Creamline's three-time PVL MVP Tots Carlos set a new local single-game scoring record, albeit six points shy of matching Rivera, in the 2024 PVL All-Filipino Conference with 38 points and remains the closest effort to date.
Rivera's 44-piece:
LAKIA BRIGHT (Banko Perlas)
Most attacks by a player in a single PVL match
A former double PVL-record holder, it goes without saying that Lakia Bright's Philippine stint in 2018 was nothing short of scintillating.
Before Rivera fired 44 in 2018, it was Bright who held the league's all-time single-game scoring record for four years with 41 points set in Banko Perlas' Reinforced Conference semifinals loss to PayMaya.
The American ace, however, still holds an active PVL record as Rivera fell just one attack point shy of matching Bright's benchmark of 40 attacks back when teams used to have two imports each.
Bright & Co. did salvage the bronze medal over Pocari Sweat to top a historic run on the league podium.
Bright's 40-attack night:
ALYSSA VALDEZ (Creamline)
Most aces by a player in a single PVL match
Simply phenomenal, always has been.
Alyssa Valdez has long embodied greatness from the moment she first stepped onto the volleyball taraflex from her UAAP days en route to the PVL.
One of many records attached to the Phenom's name is the league's single-game serving record as she once fired eight aces in Creamline's preliminary round win over the Tacloban Fighting Warays in the 2018 Reinforced Conference.
On top of 14 attack points, the three-time PVL MVP showed the way in scoring as the captain herself led by example and steered Creamline to a quick straight-sets win.
And 2018 would also mark the last time the Cool Smashers won a PVL Reinforced Conference as it was their perennial title rival Petro Gazz that captured the crown in the last two import-laden tilts in 2019 and 2022.
Valdez' eight-ace showing:
PERLAS SPIKERS vs. POWER SMASHERS
Most closely-contested match in PVL history
The PVL hasn't run short of thrilling five-setters and tightly-contested battles in nearly a decade.
One, in particular, that stands out from the rest is the ninth-ever match back in the league's debut conference as the PVL in 2017 between the Perlas Spikers and Power Smashers.
Four of the five sets in the two-hour, 13-minute contest in front of just 250 spectators at the then-named FilOil Arena in San Juan were decided by just two points.
And as if an extended 31-29 opening frame in the Power Smashers wasn't enough, Perlas powered through and battled back from an 0-2 hole with the finest of margins deciding an extended fifth-set tiebreak.
Game-high 18-point performances from Kathy Bersola and Amanda Villanueva lifted Perlas over the hump in Set 5 with a staggering 21-19 scoreline.
Such a nip-and-tuck affair, scoring-wise, has yet to be matched to this day.
PS vs PS' tug-of-war by the numbers:
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