American-born setter no. 1 pick for PSL 2015 draft

MANILA, Philippines—An American-born Filipina was chosen as the no.1 pick of the recently concluded Philippine Super Liga Draft Thursday evening at SM Aura in Taguig.

Iris Tolenada was born to Filipino parents and was born and raised in the United States.

“I expect to be able to elevate the game here with my experience,” said the 23-year-old setter from San Francisco State University who will now join Philips Gold, formerly Mane N’ Tail.

Some of her credentials include the Female Athlete of the Year for San Francisco State in 2012 and 2013 and MVP of the California Collegiate Athletic Association.

Angeli Araneta, the imposing middle blocker of University of the Philippines, went to Foton as the second overall pick.

Ateneo libero Denden Lazaro, who was picked second in the second round, joins Araneta in Foton.

College of St. Benilde’s Rica Jane Enclona went to Cignal as the third overall pick.

National University spiker Rizza Mandapat was the fourth overall pick and will now be part of Shopinas, formerly Generika.

Another CSB product, Therese Veronas we t to expansion team Shacman as the fifh overall pick while defending champions Petron picked up Alexa Micek from North Carolina State University with the sixth pick.

Rounding out the draft are NU’s Desiree Dadang (Philips Gold), Arellano University’s Diane Ticar (Cignal), CSB’s Djanel Cheng (Shopinas), Far Eastern University’s Samantha Dawson (Shacman) and NU’s Ivy Perez (Petron).

PSL’s All-Filipino Conference will start on March 22 at Mall of Asia Arena.