BY ABBY TORALBA
LIKE the Premier Volleyball League, the Spikers’ Turf is set to hold an Invitational Conference and is inviting foreign guest teams to spice up the league’s second conference in October.
Sports Vision president Ricky Palou said the local men’s volleyball league is planning to replicate the format used in the PVL Invitational Conference, where Kurashiki Ablaze from Japan, a division three team of the Japan V. League, won the recent PVL Invitational Conference, dethroning Creamline.
“Ang plano namin sa Spikers’ Turf is mag-iimbita rin kami ng foreign teams para sa semifinals. Same format we did with the PVL, we’ll get the top four teams in the elimination round and then bring in two foreign teams,” Palou said.
“We haven’t decided yet kung isa o dalawa (foreign teams). We’re trying to see if we can get two foreign teams to make it more interesting. Volleyball is a game for both genders so (kapag) sumikat din ang Spikers’ Turf, everybody happy,” he added.
He also said many teams have already declared their intention to join the coming Spikers’ Turf tourney.
“Problema namin is how to trim down (the number of teams). We’re looking at 24 (teams) pero ang gusto namin 12 lang. Kasi ang experience namin last time with that many teams, teams only play three times, hindi sulit sa kanila. We’d like to really trim it down to 12 pero pag-uusapan pa namin. Ang dami kasing gustong sumali. We’ll see how that goes,” he said.
