MANILA – The Spikers’ Turf has pledged support for Alas Pilipinas ahead of the Southeast Asian Games (SEAG).
The country’s premier and only men’s volleyball league will allow national team members to focus on training, camps, and preparations for the SEA Games in Thailand this December.
“We’re really all-out in our support for the national team. That’s why we’re allowing them to practice or to go to camps or whatever the national team’s plan is,” tournament director Mozzy Ravena said in a press statement Tuesday, Oct. 21, 2025.
As the national players will be missing club matches during the upcoming Invitational Conference, the affected teams can bring in substitute players equal to the number of athletes they would lose to Alas Pilipinas.
Among the teams with national players are Cignal HD Spikers (Vince Lorenzo, Owa Retamar, Louie Ramirez, and Lloyd Josafat), Criss Cross King Crunchers (Marck Espejo, Kim Malabunga, and Eco Adajar), UST-Gameville (Josh Ybañez), and PGJC-Navy Sealions (Jack Kalingking).
These athletes were part of the historic Alas Pilipinas lineup that broke through in the recent World Championships held here, reaching the post-elimination round.
“The teams that have national team players, they are allowed to get more players in substitutes for those who will play for the national team. But it’s also in their discretion if they want to play their national team players,” Ravena said.
“Because we don’t know if they can still play. So let them take care of that. For us, we’re all out, just go ahead, just go. Then we’ll just increase how many national team players they have. They can replace them with the same number of players. So that’s our support.”
Spikers’ Turf will move forward with the Invitational Conference, which unfolds at the Filoil EcoOil Center in San Juan on Oct. 27.
The season-ending tournament will feature 10 teams, including Kindai University from Japan and ProVolley Academy from Australia.
The two foreign teams will join the top four local squads after the elimination round in the round-robin semifinals. Spikers’ Turf sees itself as a key training ground for the future stars of the national volleyball team.
“Of course, Spiker’s Turf’s support is not only on loan. If you look at the bigger picture, we really want to develop all the players so that eventually they have more options in the national team pool or in the lineup. So, we can’t cut our tournament short so that others can develop as well,” Ravena said.
The league also wants to maintain competitive play and provide opportunities for rising stars to step up, strengthening the overall volleyball landscape in the country.
“Because in the future, what we want is that maybe each team has one, two. So that we can spread it out. That’s really the goal, that’s really the dream. That everyone has a national team player. But that’s, for now, that’s the best solution we’ve come up with. To let them go and practice for the SEA Games. So that we can be strong in the SEA Games,” she said. / PNA