Molina bags PVL Invitationals MVP

CES Molina received the highest individual honor of her career on Sunday evening at the Philsports Arena in Pasig City.

The 5-foot-9 spiker from Cignal won the PVL Invitational Conference 2023 Most Valuable Player award moments after the final.

Molina, 28, emerged as the highest scoring local in the semifinals phase, totaling 87 points.

Ces Molina PHOTO BY RIO DELUVIO 

The native of Nueva Ecija also achieved the third-highest spiker efficiency in the phase with a 33.65-percent success rate.

Previously, Molina won the Best Outside Spiker award in the 2022 Open and Invitational Conferences.

Meanwhile, Molina’s teammate Gel Cayuna was hailed as the Best Setter of the Conference, after averaging 5.14 excellent sets per game. She edged out Rhea Dimaculangan of PLDT (5.08) and Jia De Guzman of Creamline (5.00) for the award.

This is Cayuna’s second Best Setter award, as she also received the honor during the 2022 Open.

Kurashiki’s Asaka Tamaru and Creamline’s Alyssa Valdez were recognized as the Best Outside Spikers.

Tamaru was the top scorer of the semifinals phase with 113 points on a 40.07-percent spiking accuracy.

Valdez, now a seven-time Best Outside Spiker in the league, was the eighth-highest scorer with 57 points and had the second-best success rate in spiking, at 39.23 percent.

Three-time MVP Tots Carlos, also from Creamline, was awarded Best Opposite Hitter after finishing fourth in scoring with 72 points, while also having the third-best spiking success rate at 35.11 percent.

This is Carlos’ fourth Best Opposite Hitter award.

Majoy Baron of F2 Logistics and Creamline’s Ced Domingo were recognized as the top Middle Blockers, with Baron averaging 1.07 blocks per set and Domingo achieving 0.82 blocks per set.

Completing the All-Premier Team was Kath Arado of PLDT, who topped both the digging (6.62) and receiving (53.76-percent) categories.

Arado is now a three-time Best Libero in the league, having also received the citation during the 2021 Open and 2023 All-Filipino conferences.