MANILA, Philippines — PLDT is the first team to book a semifinal slot in the 2026 Premier Volleyball League (PVL) All-Filipino Conference after scoring a victory over Farm Fresh in the qualifying round on Thursday, but for head coach Rald Ricafort, it is not yet time to celebrate.
Top seed PLDT took down fourth seed Farm Fresh in four sets, 18-25, 25-23, 25-15, 25-22, at the Smart Araneta Coliseum in Cubao, Quezon City to secure a final four berth.
The top four teams in the preliminary round—PLDT, Cignal, Creamline, and Farm Fresh—advance in the qualifying round where the No. 1 team takes on the No.4 and the No. 2 battles No.3. The winners here get automatic semifinal berths while the losers face the winning teams in the play-in phase.
The semifinal round will be a round robin affair.
Ricafort said that he was pleased with how the High Speed Hitters played on Thursday but reminded his team that from here on, the games will get tougher.
“In the back of my mind, it’s still going to be hard. First, we are confused with the format—we treated the game like a do-or-die today, [if we lose] today, we will go to face Nxled [or Galeries], then it will be harder since we just came from a loss. We did not look at our standings, we just focused on today,” he told the media during the post-game presser.
“We are happy with the result, but regardless, it’s still a round-robin, and it’s still going to be tough,” he added.
The High Speed Hitters relied on the veteran playmaking of Kim Fajardo, who orchestrated 28 excellent sets, allowing four of her teammates to score in double figures.
Savi Davison led the offense for PLDT with 22 points along with 11 excellent receptions, while Kianna Dy, Majoy Baron, and Alleiah Malaluan scored 19, 11, and 10 points, respectively.
Kath Arado remained a steady floor defensive anchor for the team after making 27 excellent receptions and 18 excellent digs.
Farm Fresh, on the other hand, was led by Trisha Tubu, who netted 25 points while Ces Molina added 14 points.
Farm Fresh will get another chance to make the semis when its battles the winner of the Nxled and Galeries clash on Saturday at Ninoy Aquino Stadium.