Alas Pilipinas celebrates after beating Egypt in the FIVB Volleyball Men's World Championship 2025 in Pasay City on September 16, 2025. Mark Demayo, ABS-CBN News/File
MANILA -- Spikers' Turf has pledged its full commitment to the national cause and will give leeway to Alas Pilipinas as it prepares for the Southeast Asian Games this December in Thailand.
The league said it will allow players of the national team to focus on training and preparations, even if it means missing club matches during the upcoming Invitational Conference.
"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 kung ano man yung plano ng national team," said tournament director Mozzy Ravena during the recent press conference for the Invitational Conference held at Discovery Suites in Ortigas.
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As several local teams will be affected by Alas Pilipinas call-ups, the league is allowing squads to bring in substitute players equivalent to the number of athletes they would lose to the national team.
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.
"'Yung mga teams na may national team players, they are allowed to get more players in substitute dun sa mga maglalaro sa national team. But it's also in their discretion kung papalaruin nila yung national team players nila. Kung hanggang kailan," explained Ravena.
"Kasi hindi rin naman natin alam baka pwede pa naman maglaro. So bahala na sila dun. Basta kami, all out kami na sige lang, go lang. Tapos dadagdagan na lang namin kung ilan yung national team players nila. Pwede nilang palitan ng same number of players. So yan yung support namin," she added.
The Spikers' Turf Invitational Conference will open on October 27 at the Filoil EcoOil Centre in San Juan. The season-ending tournament will feature 10 teams, including two international guest squads – Kindai University from Japan and ProVolley Academy from Australia.
These teams will join the top four local squads after the elimination round in the round-robin semifinals.