MANILA, Philippines – The shortened 2024 PVL Invitational Conference is now down to just five teams after the Reinforced Conference top-seeded squad Akari Chargers pulled out due to injury concerns on Tuesday, September 3, league commissioner Sherwin Malonzo confirmed.
Unlike its previous pullout situation with the PLDT High Speed Hitters, however, the league is no longer inviting a replacement team, thus downsizing the already small field featuring defending champion Kurashiki Ablaze of Japan and Thailand’s EST Cola.
The PVL, meanwhile, will be represented by Reinforced Conference finalist Creamline Cool Smashers, bronze-medal contender Cignal HD Spikers, and quarterfinalist Farm Fresh Foxies, who replaced PLDT, assuming there are no more absence requests.
Similar to the High Speed Hitters’ pullout, Akari’s decision to back out is also not related to their highly controversial Reinforced knockout semifinal bout, which resulted in the undefeated Chargers marching to the knockout final against Creamline at PLDT’s expense in a razor-thin five-set decision.
In that match, prior to the heated net touch challenge at match point, Akari lost middle blocker Celine Domingo to an apparent knee injury, which may have directly triggered the idea of a pullout from the Invitationals.
The Chargers will instead fully focus on extending their surprise undefeated run all the way to a historic championship at the PhilSports Arena, in front of a likely packed, hostile environment partisan to either Creamline or PLDT, the latter still a bronze-medal match participant on Wednesday, September 4.
In another entirely separate, yet equally shocking move, the PVL is also kicking off the 2024 Invitational Conference preliminaries with Kurashiki versus EST Cola at 1 pm Wednesday afternoon, directly before the PLDT-Cignal Reinforced bronze-medal match.
The unique triple-header now guarantees at the very least eight continuous hours of action at PhilSports, since the Reinforced Conference awarding ceremony is also set to happen immediately after the gold-medal knockout final. – Rappler.com
