Alohi faces ban over rant

Setter Alohi Robins-Hardy could face sanctions or even get banned from playing in the Premier Volleyball League (PVL) following her “Farm Fresh or nothing” statement just days before the 2025 Rookie Draft.

PVL president Ricky Palou said that the league is taking the issue seriously.

“We will not allow that. She cannot choose the team that she wants to play for. She needs to go through the Draft,” Palou said during the Philippine Sportswriters Association (PSA) Forum on Tuesday.

The Filipino-Hawaiian, in an official statement released by Strong Group Athletics, which runs sister teams Farm Fresh and ZUS Coffee, threatened to “walk away from Philippine volleyball” if other teams aside from the Foxies would call her name on Sunday’s Draft night at the Novotel Manila.

“If another team drafts me, I’ll return to the US and continue my career overseas,” she said.

“I’m not just here to play anywhere. I came back for Farm Fresh. That’s where my heart is.”

Robins-Hardy decided to return to local volleyball after her last stint in 2020 in the defunct Philippine Superliga.

Farm Fresh tried to bring the grizzled playmaker under its wing, but league rules barred direct hiring as all players who have not played in the PVL since it turned pro in 2021 should go through the Draft.

The Foxies still signed the 6-foot-1 Robins-Hardy as an assistant coach instead.

Farm Fresh will select third overall and could use it to get the 29-year-old volleybelle.

Capital1 has expressed interest in choosing open spiker Bella Belen of National University as top overall pick while Galeries Towers, which owns the second selection, plans to acquire a middle blocker.

Still, Palou won’t let Robins-Hardy’s threats slide.

“If another team decides to draft her and she says she refuses to play for that particular team, there will be sanctions,” he said.

If Robins-Hardy gets picked by a different team and refuses to sign a deal, she will be barred from playing in the PVL for the next three years.

A team has a three-year right to a player it drafted in the first round, according to league rules.

“In case she gets drafted by another team, and decides not to play for that team, either at least for the next three years, (she won’t be able to play in the PVL) or might not entirely be able to play in the Philippines at all,” PVL Commissioner Sherwin Malonzo explained.