By KRISTEL SATUMBAGA
Games Wednesday
(Ilagan City, Isabela)
4 p.m. – ZUS Coffee vs Akari
6:30 p.m. – Creamline vs Nxled
Creamline and Nxled headline the start of the PVL on Tour in Ilagan City, Isabela on Wednesday, July 8, amid some innovative rule changes and sacrifices the league made for the national team cause.
The Cool Smashers will be minus libero Jen Nierva and setter Jia de Guzman, who were loaned to Alas Pilipinas preparing for this September’s Asian Games in Aichi, Japan, when they clash with the Chameleons at 6:30 p.m.
Just the day before, PVL mother clubs of the players named to the Asian Games-bound Alas pool gave the go-signal for them to skip the conference to focus on their national team duties.
For ZUS Coffee, it will be without Thea Gagate when it tackles Akari at 4 p.m.
Akari, for its part, arrived minus setter Mars Alba and libero Justine Jazareno, who joined Alas’ team practice Monday, July 6, but interestingly brought Fifi Sharma to Ilagan even though she’s part of the pool.
This came after the league has introduced some new rules like requiring all teams to play all 14 players for at least three rallies and the implementation of the two-point premier that would only be implemented late in each set.
Winning teams will also receive a bonus of P100,000 per game while the losing squad P50,000.
