The national women’s volleyball team—minus possibly its best attacker and two others—gets to play in a pocket tournament starting Tuesday to further sharpen up for the 30th Southeast Asian Games.
The Philippine Superliga Super Cup will have the PH volleybelles as its main attraction, but the team will have to make do without Alyssa Valdez, Jia Morado and Maddie Madayag, who are all standouts of the rival Premier Volleyball League.
Returning from a 12-day training camp in Tokyo on Friday, the Nationals will be clashing with three other teams in a mini-tournament put up to test their cohesiveness and readiness for the Games that the country will host starting Nov. 30.
Incidentally, Valdez and Morado will be spearheading Creamline in its title-retention bid against PetroGrazz in a best-of-three series starting on Tuesday.
Aside from the league’s two selection squads in Team Sparkle and Team Shine, Tsukuba University of Japan will also challenge the Nationals.
Tsukuba is the reigning titleholder of the All-Japan Intercollegiate Volleyball Championship and is fancied in the event.
Skipper Aby Maraño of F2 Logistics will be at the forefront of the national team, where she will be joined by Kalei Mau, Dawn Macandili, Majoy Baron, Mika Reyes, Frances Molina, Rhea Dimaculangan, Mylene Paat, Jovelyn Gonzaga, Kat Arado and Eya Laure.
Former national team members Aiza Maizo-Pontillas and Denden Lazaro will spearhead Team Bright, while Alohi Robins-Hardy will lead Team Sparkle, which will also have Roselyn Doria, Ranya Musa, May Luna, EJ Laure, Jen Reyes, Mina Aganon, Elaine Kasilag, Gretchel Soltones.