PVL: Farm Fresh replaces PLDT in Invitational Conference

Farm Fresh Foxies during the PVL Reinforced Conference.—PVL PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines — Tournament-ready Farm Fresh will be seeing action in the 2024 PVL Invitational Conference as replacement for the PLDT High Speed Hitters.

PVL Commissioner Sherwin Malonzo confirmed to Inquirer Sports that the No. 8 Farm Fresh will be the sixth squad to complete the Invitationals, which will feature foreign guest teams bannered by defending champion Kurashiki Ablaze of Japan and EST Cola — the under-20 Thai national squad.

The vacant local slot was offered to Reinforced Conference quarterfinalists by rank starting with No. 5 Chery Tiggo, No. 6 Petro Gazz, and seventh place Capital1 but all teams already took a break and their imports are no longer available.

READ: PVL: PLDT set to skip Invitationals, replacement to be announced

Farm Fresh accepted the challenge to face the Japanese and Thai clubs as well as Reinforced Conference finalists Akari and Creamline and semifinalist Cignal.

The Foxies’ Colombian import Yeny Murillo also left Manila a few days ago with the young team needing to find a new reinforcement for the Invitational Conference.

Farm Fresh made its first-ever PVL playoffs appearance after finishing the elimination round with a 3-5 record but it only lasted for one game after falling to the No.1 seed Akari in four sets in the knockout quarterfinal.

It will be an interesting campaign for Farm Fresh as it will face Kurashiki Ablaze, which has been supporting the squad as Japanese coach Hideo Suzuki serves as a consultant and Shota Sato calls the shots for the Foxies.

After their quarterfinal loss, Sato bared that he is no longer returning to Kurashiki in the Invitational Conference to focus on the development of the young team bannered by Trisha Tubu, Caitlin Viray, and Louie Romero.

PLDT will no longer play in the Invitational Conference but coach Rald Ricafort made it clear that the move is for the health of their weary players and not related to its semifinal loss to Akari marred with a controversial call.

The opening day of Invitationals, initially set on Wednesday, will be moved to a later date after the Reinforced Conference final between Creamline and Akari was postponed due to inclement weather caused by tropical storm Enteng.