PLDT Home Fibr is more than excited to represent the country in the AVC Cup that the country will host from 21 to 29 August at the Philsports Arena.

Smart head of sports Jude Turcuato yesterday told Daily Tribune that campaigning in the prestigious Asian tourney will give them the opportunity to develop their chemistry and prepare for the Reinforced Conference of the Premier Volleyball League (PVL).

PLDT has a golden chance to don the national jersey after the Philippine National Volleyball Federation sacked 10 players of National University for refusing to play in the semifinals of the PVL Invitational Conference.

With only two national team members left, the federation announced that the best performing local club in the PVL wars will get to represent the country in the AVC Cup.

The High Speed Hitters wasted no time in expressing their interest.

Although their title hopes were dashed by a heart-stopping 25-23, 20-25, 23-25, 25-20, 13-15 setback to KingWhale Taipei in their PVL semis battle, Turcuato remains optimistic, knowing that a stint in the Asian level will be a major boost to their campaign.

"The more games we have against good competition, the better the team will be," Turcuato said, adding that playing in an elite tourney will also give them a chance to scout their possible reinforcement for the season-ending conference.

"We hope we get to scout for imports there because we haven't signed up anyone yet. It would have been nice if we already got an import to play for us in the AVC. Still, playing in the AVC will help us speed up the process of searching if given the chance."

Should PLDT bag the honor of representing the country, it is tipped to hit the ground running as coach George Pascua, Dell Palomata, Mika Reyes, Kath Arado and Rhea Dimaculangan are no longer strangers to the international arena.

Pascua, a former national men's team star, mentored Petron in the 2015 AVC Asian Women's Club Championship in Vietnam while Palomata was part of the squad that competed in the same tourney last year.