Premier Volleyball League

History

The league was established in 2004 by Sports Vision Management Group, Inc. (Sports Vision) and sponsor Shakey's Pizza Philippines (International Family Foods, Inc.). Sports Vision was founded by a group led by former PBA commissioner Jun Bernardino and is currently headed by chairman Moying Martelino and president Ricky Palou.

The UST Tigresses won the inaugural V-League championship in 2004 defeating the La Salle Lady Archers. But the De La Salle University have won the next three conferences of the said league defeating their arch-rivals, UST Tigresses in both conferences of Season 2 and SSC - R Lady Stags in Season 3, sweeping them both in the Finals of the three conferences.

The UST Tigresses returned to the League in 2007, after missing Season 3, winning both conferences of Season 4 by defeating the SSC-R Lady Stags in both finals series.

Year 2008 saw the crowning of two other schools aside from UST and DLSU. Adamson University won the championship in the first conference of Season 5 defeating the Ateneo Lady Eagles while San Sebastian College-Recoletos Lady Stags won the second conference of season 5 by sweeping the two comebacking champion teams: DLSU Lady Archers in the semifinals and UST Tigresses in the finals.

However, the Tigresses made history via a "three-peat" winning their fourth, fifth and sixth championships by sweeping both conferences of Season 6 by defeating SSC-R and Adamson, respectively in both championship series, and again winning the first conference of Season 7 by beating SSC-R for the fourth time in the finals.

It was the battle of the runners-up of the last two conferences when Adamson University faced the Lady Stags of SSC-R in the finals of the 2nd Conference Season 7. Adamson won its second V-League crown after defeating San Sebastian 2-1 in their Finals series.

In the 1st Conference Season 8, the Ateneo Lady Eagles won their first Shakey's V-League crown by thumping defending champions Adamson in the Finals. The 2nd Conference of Season 8 was renamed the Shakey's V-League Open Conference as it was opened to non-school teams. Four non-school teams joined the tournament, namely, the Philippine Army, Philippine Navy, Philippine Air Force and Maynilad. The Philippine Army won their first Shakey's V-League championship. Season 8-Open Conference, Shakey's V-League will also aired on GMA Life TV, GMA News TV and GMA Pinoy TV for the international viewers.

Season 9 was locally aired on AKTV on IBC13 and Hyper Cable channel.

Starting from its 10th Season, Shakey's V-League's new broadcasting partner is now GMA News TV channel 11. All of the matches are aired at 1PM to 3PM during weekdays, and 12:45PM to 2:30PM during Saturdays. On May 26, 2013, Shakey's V-League held its first Live TV Coverage via GMA News TV. It is also announced that the Game 3 matches, both for Championship and the Battle for 3rd will be aired live on GMA News TV on June 2, 2013. In Season 10 Open Conference, Cagayan Valley made history as the Lady Rising Suns scored a 16-0 sweep en route to the team's first V-League title with a 2-0 series win over Smart-Maynilad Net Spikers. On October 2, 2014, it was reported that a men's division will be included in its 21st conference with four teams.

On May 24, 2016, it was officially announced that Shakey's V-League will now be aired on S+A Channel 23 following an agreement between Sports Vision, Shakey's and ABS-CBN Sports.

In December 2016, it was announced that starting the 14th season in 2017, the Shakey's V-League will be renamed as the Philippine V-League (PVL). The season will start with the Reinforced Conference instead of the Open Conference in March 2017. The Spikers' Turf, which was spun-off from the league in 2015, will be merged to the PVL. Shakey's Pizza will remain as a presenter or major sponsor. In March 2017, during the signing of a new partnership deal between the league organizer Sports Vision and media firm, ABS-CBN Sports it was announced that the name of the league will be Premier Volleyball League (PVL) deciding against renaming the league Philippine V-League since the name has already been used in the past.

Current teams and coaches

For the Philippine V-League 14th Season Reinforced Open Conference:

Special teams

Championship results

The UST Tigresses have the most number of championships (six), followed by the DLSU Lady Spikers & NU Lady Bulldogs (three). The Adamson Lady Falcons, Ateneo Lady Eagles, Philippine Army Lady Troopers , PLDT Home Ultera Ultra Fast Hitters, Cagayan Valley Lady Rising Suns and Pocari Sweat Lady Warriors have won two championships each. The San Sebastian Lady Stags, Vietsovpetro (VIE), Sandugo-San Sebastian, and FEU Lady Tamaraws each have one championship.

Rivalries

The Rivalries between teams has been the most awaited scene among all sporting events; the Shakey's V-League also shares the hype of collegiate and league rivalries. For 11 seasons, the league has witnessed the best teams collide and battle their way out to victory, resulting to frequent exchanges in and out of the court. The following are the most watched and popular rivalries in the league.

One of the most interesting and most popular rivalry that started it all was with the UST Tigresses and the De La Salle Lady Spikers. Their rivalry started in their mother league the University Athletic Association of the Philippines (UAAP) being the recent Champion and Runners-up back in 2002-2003. These two teams battled it out in 3 finals bout during the first expansion of the league. The UST Tigresses won the inaugural conference of the league but failed to defend it as De La Salle would beat them twice in a row that started their 3-peat championship streak(Season 2 1st & 2nd Conference and Season 3). The rivalry would eventually falter as De La Salle has not participated since the 1st Conference of the 5th Season.

This rivalry was one of the most celebrated as these two teams belonged to two of the premier collegiate leagues in the Philippines the University Athletic Association of the Philippines (UAAP) and the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). Shakey's V-league's 4th season would mark the start of the UST-SSC-R rivalry. They would eventually meet five times in the championship round of the league, UST would win four of the five championships (Season 4 1st & 2nd, Season 6 1st and Season 7 1st Conferences) and SSC-R would carry their sole victor against UST(Season 5 2nd Conference). The rivalry is still one of the most watched as different Guest Players (GP) specially those from the UST Tigresses would surprise the crowd playing for the opponent's team (Roces Season 6-7, R. De Leon & Dimaculangan Season 9 Open Conference, Banaticla Season 11 1st Conference). Today's rivalry between the two is not as loud as it was in the past, it could be because of the decreasing level of play of both UST and SSC-R during the recent years.

As the Yolanda victims battle the fury of nature's wrath, the Shakey's V-league has established the All-star weekend similar to the all-star events of the European Volleyball Circuit. This event was made to gather monetary fund to help the victims of the typhoon. Although the reason for this event was for the victims of Yolanda, it's said to be an annual event to exhibit the best of the best of Philippine Volleyball. Smart All-stars would be the victor of its inaugural game. Although premature, fans are excited to see this expansion.

Playing venues

At present, games are held at the Filoil Flying V Arena. During the semi-final to championship rounds of Season 10, games were held on the Mall of Asia Arena in Pasay and in the iconic Philsports Arena in Pasig to accommodate larger attendance.

Past venues included the Lyceum of the Philippines University gymnasium, the Blue Eagle Gym and the Rizal Memorial Coliseum.

Broadcast partners

The television rights to cover the volleyball games were transferred to S+A from GMA News TV. A contract was signed in 2016.

Current Broadcast Team (S+A)