I am talking about the 2nd All Filipino Conference of the PVL that attracted 12 teams including 2 new ones.

At its pre opening presscon, I tried to get some players to name the seeded teams but outside of Cel Molina, the others gave safe answers that all teams were contenders.

When I chanced upon Creamline coach Sherwin Meneses at the Smart- Araneta just before they beat sister team Choco Mucho 3-1, with some hesitation he finally admitted that the veteran teams have the edge, of course they do as the newer teams have to go through their own birth pains and develop both their players and team chemistry.

All the veteran teams in the PVL have these already as their core team remains intact, well, except for Creamline that lost setter Jia de Guzman and Ced Domingo, Jia to Japan, Ced to Thailand, though somevteams are hurting because of player injuries, Mylene Paat of Chery Tiggo and Kianna Dy for F2.

Among the newer teams, I included Akari among the 8 teams that I felt can contend for the semifinals, together with Creamline, Petro Gazz, Chery Tiggo, Cignal, PLDT, Choco Mucho, and F2 Logistics.

And looking at the initial standings , the results bear me out though NxLED made it to the top 8 with Cignal at 9th, but then NxLED , at 1-1, won against Gerflor but faced with veteran team F2, it lost.

Current standings show Creamline and Petro Gazz at 2-0 but Creamline has met and beaten seeded teams in both games, taking out Choco Mucho and Cignal to show its depth and strength.

Petro Gazz however has only played and beat Galeries Tower and Gerflor while in joint 2nd place with similar 2-1 records are Chery Tiggo, PLDT, and Akari, at 1-1 aside from NxLED are F2, Choco Mucho and Cignal.

Akari actually looks good as it downed F2 and Chery Tiggo but lost to PLDT, the addition of Fifi Sharma and earlier, Faith Nisperos plus veteran Dindin Manabat seem to be a powerhouse trio for the team.

Chery Tiggo , as expected beat two new teams in its first two games but as mentioned, could not handle Akari.

Today, Thursday, Creamline and Akari should be easy winners over Gerflor and Farmfresh respectively, it us the 3rd game that may prove interesting as Choco Mucho faces Cignal that will break their tied 1-1 records.

As it is, the veteran teams are generally having an easier time when faced with the newer teams, but faced with another seeded team, the game can go either way but I still give the edge to Creamline , for the other 3 teams to join Creamline in the semis, at this point, your guess is as good as mine.

In the other league, the Shakey’s Super League that features both UAAP , except UP La Salle, and NCAA teams, it has reached its quarterfinal stage with 6 UAAP teams, unbeaten NU, UST, FEU, Adamson, ,UE, and Ateneo in plus 2 NCAA squads, St. Benilde and Arellano , the latter even taking down Ateneo in the process.

NU faces UE, and I will take any bet , and I am sure many others will, that NU will easily get past UE, then it is UST , which had the next best record at 5-1 to NU’s 6-0 in the 2nd round, taking on St. Benilde , again, I will give the edge to UST but they cannot afford to be complacent against their opponents.

Third match up is between FEU and ATENEO, and from the way Ateneo is playing in the tournaments, the odds will definitely favor FEU, last game features Adamson against Arellano which has nothing to lose, everything to gain, but I give this game to Adamson.

This weekend will prove me right, or maybe wrong.

My congratulations to para swimmer Ernie Gawilan for delivering our first gold in the Asian Paragames on going now in China, this on top of an earlier bronze, and he still has a chance to add to his medal collection.

Jerrold Mangliwan delivered our first silver medal while another swimmer Gary Bejino also got a bronze.

Go for it guys and gals, I am definitely sure there are more medals to be brought home by our para athletes.