Gandler wins PVL MVP, leads Premier Team

Vanie Gandler capped Cignal’s resurgence by winning the Most Valuable Player award and headlining the Premier Team of the 2026 PVL All-Filipino Conference.

The 25-year-old outside hitter powered the Super Spikers to the second seed with a 6-3 record and carried that form into the semifinals, where Cignal booked its first Finals appearance in two years.

Now in her third year in the league, Gandler finished fourth in scoring at the end of the semifinals, the statistical cutoff for the conference’s highest individual honor, with 209 total points built on 182 attacks, 17 kill blocks, and 10 service aces.

She also ranked ninth in spiking at 31.93 percent, seventh in serving with 0.23 aces per set, and seventh in receiving at 36.59 percent, numbers that highlighted her impact on both offense and floor defense.

Capital1 super rookie Bella Belen and Nxled standout Brooke Van Sickle earned Best Outside Spiker honors after anchoring their respective teams with standout all-around campaigns.

Belen, who also won Rookie of the Conference, claimed her first Best Outside Spiker award after finishing third in scoring with 218 points on 199 attacks, eight blocks, and 11 aces, despite the Solar Spikers reaching only the first round of the play-in stage.

She also placed fourth in spiking with a 35.16 percent success rate and fourth in serving with 0.31 aces per set, while ranking second in receiving efficiency at 40.84 percent and sixth in digging with 3.06 digs per set.

Van Sickle secured the Best Outside Spiker honor for the third time after finishing seventh in scoring with 175 points, seventh in spiking at 33.12 percent, and ninth in serving with 0.22 aces per set.

The Nxled star also ranked third in receiving efficiency at 40.71 percent, further underlining her value as a two-way outside hitter.

Farm Fresh’s Trisha Tubu was named Best Opposite Spiker for the fifth time after leading the league in scoring with 251 points on 216 attacks, 30 blocks, and five aces.

Tubu also topped all spikers with a 41.70 percent success rate and ranked sixth in blocking with 0.60 blocks per set.

Creamline’s Pangs Panaga extended her record haul to a 10th Best Middle Blocker award, while ZUS Coffee rookie Riza Nogales secured her second positional honor.

Panaga led all middle blockers in total kill blocks with 37 and ranked second in blocks per set at 0.76.

Nogales topped the league in blocks per set at 0.80 and finished fourth in total blocks with 28, capping a stellar rookie season for ZUS Coffee.

Cignal’s Gel Cayuna and PLDT’s Kath Arado completed the Premier Team by winning Best Setter and Best Libero, respectively.

Cayuna secured her fifth Best Setter award after finishing third in setting with 4.48 excellent sets per set and leading all setters in service aces with 0.34 per set.

Arado claimed her sixth Best Libero award after ranking second in digging with 4.71 digs per set. (PVL)