Celebrity athlete Michele Gumabao reigned supreme in the recently concluded Invitational Conference of the Premier Volleyball League as she took home the Most Valuable Player award. This is the first time that the former Pinoy Big Brother housemate won the highest individual award in the professional league. 

Apart from her MVP title, Michele helped push her club team, the Creamline Cool Smashers, to victory and secure a grand slam title last September 12 at the Araneta Coliseum in Quezon City. The club’s grand slam title marks the first ever team to achieve such a feat in the PVL. 

READ: Michele Gumabao, Alyssa Valdez win gold with team in PVL

The volleyball player, who has won three PVL Best Opposite Spiker awards, bested all other local players in the scoring division as she tallied 59 points coming from 52 attacks, three blocks, and four aces in the preliminary round of the short tournament. 

Apart from being the top scorer, Michele had a 37.96 percent success rate in the attacking department–– making her second from everyone. She placed fourth in the service department as well as she averaged 0.29 aces per set. 

Michele expressed her gratitude to their supporters in her acceptance speech. She shared how her award was possible due to everyone who helped her along the way.

“Thank you po sa lahat. Thank you so much to all the fans of Creamline. Thank you Lord for this win and this championship. Thank you to all of my teammates for all the hard work. To all our families who are here today… God bless po,” she shared. 

LOOK: Michele Gumabao is now engaged to partner Aldo Panlilio

She admitted that winning the MVP award was the least of her concerns during the post-game press conference. She shared that the championship was more important for them and the individual awards were just a bonus to their sweet victory. 

“It's really one team, one family kami and 'yung goal naman namin is not really individual pero manalo kami as a team, so 'yun talaga 'yung pinaka-goal and super happy kasi nagawa namin ito sama-sama,” she told the media present. 

Check out the other individual awardees of the conference:

Best Outside Spikers

MJ Perez (Cignal HD Spikers)

Erica Staunton (Creamline Cool Smashers) 

Best Middle Blockers

Jackie Acuña (Cignal HD Spikers)

Low Mei Cing (Kurashiki Ablaze)

Best Opposite Spiker

Saya Taniguchi (Kurashiki Ablaze)

Best Setter

Kyle Negrito (Creamline Cool Smashers)

Best Libero 

Kalyarat Khamwong (Est Cola Volleyball) 

The PVL Invitational Conference marks the end of the 2024 conferences of the professional league. The 2025 All Filipino Conference will mark a new era for all the club teams.