THE Premier Volleyball League ,( PVL) will go All Filipino again for its 3rd conference this year, meaning no imports will be seeing action.

I got this straight from Ricky Palou Tuesday night at the Philsports where I caught up with the ongoing invitational conference, featuring Vietnamese and Japanese teams.

I started writing this after Creamline swept aside Kinh Bac-bac Ninh in three sets and assured itself of a seat in the finals even as it still has a game to go against Kurashiki

Ablaze which was up next against F2 Logistics.

Again it was a vintage Alyssa Valdez, back from an injury that sidelined her for a long time, teaming up with another ageless player, Jia Morado de Guzman who to me remains the best setter of the league bar none.

The two, chosen as co- best players of the game, joined the media guys after the game with coach Sherwin Meneses.

And one thing I like about this team , they remain humble and never forget to give credit to their opponents.

Alyssa says she is happy to be back on the court playing with her teammates while Jia likewise is happy to have her back as one of her spikers.

Creamline plays Kurashiki this Friday, a battle of undefeated teams after the visiting squad posted a similar 3-0 sweep of F2, showing strength both on offense and defense, the game between the two teams will be a preview already of the finals as Kurashiki likewise made it to the finals.

It will be a good game and i believe Creamline , a proud team that knows how to win no matter what, will put up a good fight, but if I were a betting man, my money will be on Kurashiki, but my heart will be on Creamline.

I am talking of the finals okay? And I will be very happy if Creamline proves me wrong.

Now back to Ricky. who gave me a bit of trivia about the Japanese team which he describes as a smart team with the way it plays.Kurashiki is a provincial team from Okayama City, and the coach is also the team owner.

.Ricky was surprised to learn that the players are not paid salaries to play, instead they are all employed in the construction company owned by the coach and get paid for regular jobs, volleyball being a common love between the players and the owner.

And like other Japanese teams in whatever sport they play abroad, these girls also keep their dressing room clean and neat after games, according to Ricky.It is their culture.

On the no-import development for the PVL this year, Ricky said he agreed to play another All Filipino conference to end the problem between the league and Tats Suzara who sanctioned the league for holding a tournament during the “national team” window.

This also led to the Philippine National Volleyball Federation( PNVF) forming a national team composed solely of collegiate players sans PVL professionals.

Both Ricky and I agree though that the ideal line up is a mix of young and veteran players who can guide and mentor the younger ones who look up to these veterans, Jia for me is a good example of being a mentor.

Ricky says anything can still happen and who knows, Tats might have a change of heart and re-form the team come the next SEA Games, I am sure volleyball fans will prefer a mixed team.

I also asked Ricky about the drafting and salary cap that the PVL will be introducing next year.

The rules are being drafted already and among them, no professional team will be allowed to draft directly any player, particularly those who play in the UAAP and the NCAA.

He added team owners have agreed in principle to these changes.

We also talked of the men’s side of the game and this is one area that Ricky wants to focus on. In terms of popularity and fan following, the women’s side has left the men’s side by the proverbial mile.

Among others, Ricky wants to have a core group of teams that will play regularly conference after conference, season after season, and he looks at 6 as the magic number, he has 3 at the moment.

I will devote more space on this topic in the future.

LOOSE CHANGE: our women athletes seem to be shining nowadays, our football team just posted a 1-0 win over New Zealand in the World Cup, a milestone in our sports history…..with or without Jordan Clarkson in the line-up, it will be uphill all the way for Gilas in the FIBA World Cup……former PBA team owner and manager Nikki Coseteng will be one of my future features on sports personalities of yesteryears, others in my list includes Eugene Torre, Tac Padilla, Isidro del Prado, Nonoy Unso, Ricky Palou, and Bong Coo.

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