The 2025 Premier Volleyball League Invitational Conference was the first conference of the 2025–26 Premier Volleyball League season and the second tournament of the season. The fourth Invitational Conference runs from August 21 to 31, 2025 and featured five of the league's local teams alongside one foreign guest team. The tournament was initially set to start on August 19, two days before its current schedule.
The PLDT High Speed Hitters won the conference after beating the guest team Kobe Shinwa University in the championship match in four sets, giving them back-to-back gold medals following their preseason triumph. The Creamline Cool Smashers swept the Chery Tiggo Crossovers in the 3rd medal match to complete the podium and retain their streak of nineteen consecutive podium finishes.
Qualification The 2025 Invitational Conference follows the same format as the 2024 edition. It is a smaller-scale tournament where only a selection of teams will qualify based on performance from the previous conference.
Four slots were allocated for the semifinalists of the 2025 PVL on Tour. These were Chery Tiggo Crossovers, Cignal HD Spikers, Creamline Cool Smashers, and PLDT High Speed Hitters. As part of the Invitational Conference, the league invited two foreign guest teams to compete. The Kurashiki Ablaze and Kobe Shinwa University, both from Japan, were announced to compete on August 13. Kobe Shinwa will make their debut after backing out of the 2022 edition.
On August 21, it was announced that Kurashiki, which would have made their third consecutive Invitational appearance, will no longer compete due to a "serious compliance violation" by head coach Hideo Suzuki. An invitation was first sent to the Farm Fresh Foxies, but the team instead gave the invitation to the Zus Coffee Thunderbelles, which accepted it.
Qualification method Date Berths Qualifier(s) 2025 PVL on Tour semifinalists August 7–9, 2025 4 Chery Tiggo Crossovers Cignal HD Spikers Creamline Cool Smashers PLDT High Speed Hitters Invited teams August 21, 2025 1 Zus Coffee Thunderbelles Foreign guest teams August 13, 2025 (announcement) 2 1 Kobe Shinwa University (Japan) Kurashiki Ablaze (Japan)
Participating teams
2025 Premier Volleyball League Invitational Conference Abbr. Team Affiliation Head coach Team captain Local teams CTC Chery Tiggo Crossovers United Asia Automotive Group Norman Miguel Aby Maraño CHD Cignal HD Spikers Cignal TV, Inc. Shaq Delos Santos Dawn Macandili-Catindig CCS Creamline Cool Smashers Rebisco Sherwin Meneses Alyssa Valdez HSH PLDT High Speed Hitters PLDT Inc. Rald Ricafort Kath Arado ZUS Zus Coffee Thunderbelles Zuspresso Sdn. Bhd. / Strong Group Athletics Jerry Yee Cloanne Mondoñedo Foreign guest team KSU Kobe Shinwa University Kiyokazu Yamamoto Sakura Furuta
Venues Preliminaries Preliminaries, Finals Pasig Quezon City PhilSports Arena (PSA) Smart Araneta Coliseum (SAC) Capacity: 10,000 Capacity: 20,000
Transactions
National team players The following players are part of the Philippines women's national team pool that were training and scheduled to play in several events in the 2025 national team season. They were therefore excluded from the conference. On August 18, these players were allowed to report back to their respective clubs but they can only play in the Reinforced Conference and not this tournament.
Additionally two players filed a leave of absence to train for the national beach volleyball team for the 2025 SEA Games.
Team Player/s Chery Tiggo Crossovers Jen Nierva Choco Mucho Flying Titans Sisi Rondina (beach) Cignal HD Spikers Dawn Catindig Vanie Gandler Creamline Cool Smashers Jia de Guzman Bernadeth Pons (beach) PLDT High Speed Hitters Dell Palomata Alleiah Malaluan
Format The following format is being conducted for the entirety of the conference:
Preliminary round The preliminary round is a single round-robin tournament, with each team playing one match against all other teams for a total of five matches. Teams are ranked using the FIVB Ranking System. Results from the 2025 PVL on Tour semifinals were carried over. Because of this, the four semifinalists will not play against their respective opponents from the conference and will only play four matches. The top two teams will advance to the championship match while teams ranked third and fourth will play in the third-place match. Teams ranked fifth and sixth will be eliminated and be ranked accordingly in the final standings.
Finals Both the championship (gold medal) and third-place (bronze medal) matches will be singular matches. The match-ups will be as follows: Championship match: 1st ranked team vs. 2nd ranked team Third-place match: 3rd ranked team vs. 4th ranked team
Pool standing procedure First, teams are ranked by the number of matches won. If the number of matches won is tied, the tied teams are then ranked by match points, wherein: Match won 3–0 or 3–1: 3 match points for the winner, 0 match points for the loser. Match won 3–2: 2 match points for the winner, 1 match point for the loser. In case of any further ties, the following criteria shall be used: Set ratio: the number of sets won divided by number of sets lost. Point ratio: the number of points scored divided by the number of points allowed. Head-to-head standings: any remaining tied teams are ranked based on the results of head-to-head matches involving the teams in question.
Preliminary round All times are Philippine Standard Time (UTC+08:00). The results from the PVL On Tour Semifinals will be carried over.
Standings
Match results
Final round All times are Philippine Standard Time (UTC+08:00).
3rd place match
Championship match
Final standings
Rank Team PLDT High Speed Hitters Kobe Shinwa University Creamline Cool Smashers 4 Chery Tiggo Crossovers 5 Cignal HD Spikers 6 Zus Coffee Thunderbelles
Team roster Kath Arado (c), Maria Nieza Viray, Shiela Mae Kiseo, Mika Reyes, Alleiah Jan Lina Malaluan, Savi Davison, Zenneth Irene Perolino, Kim Fajardo, Majoy Baron, Kim Kianna Dy, Dell Palomata, Anne Esguerra, Keisha Dazzie Bedonia, Angelica Legacion, Angelica Alcantara, Jessey Laine de Leon, Jovie Prado Head coach Rald Ricafort
Awards and medalists
Award Player Team Conference Most Valuable Player Savi Davison PLDT Finals Most Valuable Player Kath Arado PLDT 1st Best Outside Hitter Jema Galanza Creamline 2nd Best Outside Hitter Nagisa Komatsuda Kobe Shinwa 1st Best Middle Blocker Jeanette Panaga Creamline 2nd Best Middle Blocker Rizza Nogales Zus Coffee Best Opposite Hitter Ara Galang Chery Tiggo Best Setter Sakura Furuta Kobe Shinwa Best Libero Kath Arado PLDT
Medalists Gold Silver Bronze PLDT High Speed Hitters Kobe Shinwa University Creamline Cool Smashers Head coach: Rald Ricafort Head coach: Kiyokazu Yamamoto Head coach: Sherwin Meneses
References