Choco Mucho seen as PVL early favorite with Laure, return of Rondina

Games on Jan. 31
(FilOil EcoOil Arena)
4 p.m. – Galeries Tower vs Cignal
6:30 p.m. – Akari vs Choco Mucho

THE ARRIVAL of Eya Laure, the biggest off-season acquisition of the year, and the eagerly anticipated return of Sisi Rondina will be the highlight when Choco Mucho tackles Akari in Jan. 31’s Premier Volleyball League (PVL) All-Filipino Conference at the Filoil EcoOil Arena.

Ms. Laure has chosen the Flying Titans as her new home after leaving the defunct Chery Tiggo Crossovers last year and her entrance and the homecoming of Ms. Rondina, who took a break for the Southeast Asian Games beach volley gold medal that she eventually won in Thailand last December, should install the Rebisco franchise as an early title favorite.

It will also be a reunion of sorts for Mses. Laure and Rodina, who played UAAP college ball together at University of Santo Tomas years back.

Gametime is set at 6:30 p.m.

Akari had its share of key pickups in Cza Carandang, Judith Abil and Jyne Soreño but none beats the mammoth catch like Ms. Laure.

The season will be officially ushered in by the duel pairing a new-look Galeries Tower against a Cignal side that practically retained its super core in Vanie Gandler, Erika Santos, Roselyn Doria, Dawn Catindig, Gel Cayuna and Ishie Lalongisip at 4 p.m.

The Highrisers, in contrast, have undergone a complete rebuild after adding 14 players and installing a new coach in Clarence Esteban.

Down to 10 teams but with a better quality of play and balance, the league will implement a single-round elimination format with the team that ends up with a sweep receiving an outright semifinal seat.

Should there be no sweep, however, the top four teams will clash in the qualifying round knockout matches, with the winners advancing to the next round.

The losing teams, meanwhile, are not immediately eliminated. Instead, they drop into the newly introduced Play-In Stepladder phase — another first for the league — where teams ranked fifth to 10^th get a second chance to stay alive.

Rankings throughout the eliminations and beyond will be determined using the FIVB Team Classification System, which accounts for wins, set ratio, and points ratio, reinforcing fairness and consistency.

The semifinals will be contested in a single round-robin format, again using the FIVB system to rank the teams with the top two battling each other in a best-of-three finale at the Araneta Coliseum, with the organizing Sports Vision targeting an April 28 conclusion. — Joey Villar