The Premier Volleyball League kicks off its 2023 season-ending All-Filipino Conference with a bang, pitting multiple sister teams against one another in a loaded triple-header at the Araneta Coliseum on October 15.
Kicking off the hostilities at 3 pm are the Gerflor Defenders and the debuting NXLed Chameleons, the new expansion team of the Akari franchise, while sister teams PLDT and Cignal take on each other at 5 pm.
The main attraction, however, is slated at 7 pm, as sister squads Choco Mucho and Creamline clash for the first time since their blockbuster battle attended by more than 19,000 fans at the Mall of Asia Arena last February 14.
Apart from NXLed, the Galeries Highrisers will also make their PVL debut on October 17, 7 pm, against the formidable Chery Tiggo Crossovers.
Notably, the league has also scheduled significantly more out-of-town matches, starting with Batangas City on October 21.
Other areas include Antipolo, Rizal, Santa Rosa, Laguna, Candon, Ilocos Sur, Cagayan de Oro City, and Iloilo.
Unlike previous conferences where the league employed separate pool phases and cross-pool playoffs, the Second All-Filipino tilt will return to a single round-robin preliminaries format, ending with a December 5 finale between rivals F2 Logistics and Creamline.
The Second All-Filipino Conference temporarily replaces the usual season-ending Reinforced Conference, after the Philippine National Volleyball Federation (PNVF) banned the PVL from tapping imports due to its reportedly unauthorized hosting of the 2023 Invitational Conference within the national team calendar.