2025 Premier Volleyball League Invitational Conference

The 2025 Premier Volleyball League Invitational Conference was the 21st conference of the Premier Volleyball League and the second conference and third tournament of the 2024–25 season. The fourth Invitational Conference runs from August 21 to 31, 2025 and will feature five of the league's local teams alongside one foreign guest team. The tournament was initially set to start on August 19, two days before its current schedule.^[1]

The PLDT High Speed Hitters won the conference after beating guest team Kobe Shinwa University in the championship match in four sets, giving them back-to-back gold medals following their preseason triumph.^[2] The Creamline Cool Smashers beat the Chery Tiggo Crossovers in straight sets to complete the podium and retain their streak of nineteen consecutive podium finishes.^[3]

The 2025 Invitational Conference follows the same format as the 2024 edition. It is a smaller-scale tournament where only a selection of teams will qualify based on performance from the previous conference.^[4][5]

Four slots were allocated for the semifinalists of the 2025 PVL on Tour. These were Chery Tiggo Crossovers, Cignal HD Spikers, Creamline Cool Smashers, and PLDT High Speed Hitters. As part of the Invitational Conference, the league invited two foreign guest teams to compete. The Kurashiki Ablaze and Kobe Shinwa University, both from Japan, were announced to compete on August 13. Kobe Shinwa will make their debut after backing out of the 2022 edition.^[6]

On August 21, it was announced that Kurashiki, which would have made their third consecutive Invitational appearance, will no longer compete due to a "serious compliance violation" by head coach Hideo Suzuki. An invitation was first sent to the Farm Fresh Foxies, but the team instead gave the invitation to the Zus Coffee Thunderbelles, which accepted it.^[7]

The following players are part of the Philippines women's national team pool that were training and scheduled to play in several events in the 2025 national team season. They were therefore excluded from the conference.^[9] On August 18, these players were allowed to report back to their respective clubs but they can only play in the Reinforced Conference and not this tournament.^[10]

Additionally two players filed a leave of absence to train for the national beach volleyball team for the 2025 SEA Games.^[11][12]

The following format is being conducted for the entirety of the conference:

Preliminary round

• The preliminary round is a single round-robin tournament, with each team playing one match against all other teams for a total of five matches. Teams are ranked using the FIVB Ranking System.
  • Results from the 2025 PVL on Tour semifinals were carried over.^[13] Because of this, the four semifinalists will not play against their respective opponents from the conference and will only play four matches.
• The top two teams will advance to the championship match while teams ranked third and fourth will play in the third-place match.
• Teams ranked fifth and sixth will be eliminated and be ranked accordingly in the final standings.

Finals

• Both the championship (gold medal) and third-place (bronze medal) matches will be singular matches.
• The match-ups will be as follows:
  • Championship match: 1st ranked team vs. 2nd ranked team
  • Third-place match: 3rd ranked team vs. 4th ranked team

• First, teams are ranked by the number of matches won.
• If the number of matches won is tied, the tied teams are then ranked by match points, wherein:
  • Match won 3–0 or 3–1: 3 match points for the winner, 0 match points for the loser.
  • Match won 3–2: 2 match points for the winner, 1 match point for the loser.
• In case of any further ties, the following criteria shall be used:
  • Set ratio: the number of sets won divided by number of sets lost.
  • Point ratio: the number of points scored divided by the number of points allowed.
  • Head-to-head standings: any remaining tied teams are ranked based on the results of head-to-head matches involving the teams in question.

• All times are Philippine Standard Time (UTC+08:00).
• The results from the PVL On Tour Semifinals will be carried over.

• All times are Philippine Standard Time (UTC+08:00).