MANILA — American spiker Lindsay Stalzer will don a new jersey in the 2017 Philippine Superliga (PSL) Grand Prix, which kicks off at The Arena in San Juan on October 21.
The 6-foot-1 Stalzer, who steered the Foton Tornadoes to two titles, will be playing for Petron in the season-ending conference of the country’s most prestigious volleyball club league.
Aside from Stalzer, who is a native of Peoria, Illinois, Petron will also parade American Hillary Hurley and Japanese Yuri Fukuda, who saw action for the PSL Manila team in the 2016 FIVB Women’s Club Championship.
Foton, on the other hand, has recruited Dragana Perunicnic of Montenegro and Sara Klisura and Katarina Vukamanovic of Serbia.
With the three Europeans in the line-up, Foton’s Serbian coach Moro Branislav hopes to win their third straight Grand Prix crown.
“This is turning out to be the biggest and most competitive PSL Grand Prix ever,” said PSL president Ramon “Tats” Suzara in a statement released to the media on Tuesday.
Suzara said the league allowed teams to recruit up to three imports for the first time to increase the level of excitement and competitiveness among a record of nine competing teams.
“The mere fact that almost all teams will parade three imports means that they are serious in winning the title. This is going to be very exciting,” he added.
The other participating teams — Cignal, Cocolife, Sta. Lucia, Generika-Ayala and F2 Logistics — also showed impressive line-ups.
Leading the Cignal HD spikers are Australian Beth Carey, American Alexis Matthews, and Japanese Mami Miyashita.
The Cocolife Asset Managers will be spearheaded by 5-foot-11 American Taylor Milton and University of Hawaii’s Tai Manu-Olevao while the Sta. Lucia Lady Realtors got Canadian national team members Marisa Field and Kristen Moncks, and Bulgarian national team player Slavina Koleva.
American Katelyn Driscoll and Croatian Katarina Pilepic will banner the Generika-Ayala Lifesavers, while the F2 Logistics Cargo Movers recruited American Kennedy Bryan and Venezuelan Maria Jose Perez.
Meanwhile, expansion team Iriga and collegiate squad University of Santo Tomas are expected to submit their final rosters this week. (PNA)
