Japanese and Vietnamese teams are set to spice up the Premier Volleyball League (PVL) Invitational Conference as foreign guest squads, the league announced on Thursday, July 6.

For the second consecutive year, the PVL has invited foreign clubs after previously having KingWhale Taipei of Taiwan in the 2022 edition.

This time, Kurashiki Ablaze of Japan and Kinh Bac-Bac Ninh of Vietnam are the two club teams seeing action in the round-robin semifinals of the tournament against the two best teams from Pool A and B.

The 11-team mid-year conference is currently on a 10-day break to give way to the Philippine National Volleyball Federation’s (PNVF) ongoing hosting of the men’s Volleyball Nations League (VNL) Week 3.

Defending champion Creamline, which sent the Taiwanese team packing last year, leads the standings in Pool A against PLDT, Chery Tiggo, Akari and Gerflor.

F2 Logistics and Choco Mucho, on the other hand, hold a similar 2-0 slate as they clash when the tournament resumes on July 11.

Pool B also features All-Filipino finalist Petro Gazz, Cignal, comebacking Foton and debuting Farm Fresh, which are both still winless.

The league has yet to reveal further details about the foreign teams.