PVL: At Nxled, Lyann de Guzman joins another foreign coach

PVL Rookie Draft aspirant Lyann De Guzman. –MARLO CUETO/INQUIRER.net

It won’t be the first time that Lyann de Guzman will be playing under a foreign coach and so for her, starting her pro career with Nxled won’t be too drastic of a change.

“Of course they have different systems but whatever I can adopt and bring to [my new] team from what I learned from coach Sergio [Veloso] I will share,” De Guzman told the Inquirer.

Veloso, a tactician hailing from Brazil, has been De Guzman’s former mentor for two years when she was leading Ateneo in the UAAP.

Now officially a Chameleon after having signed her contract as announced by the team on Saturday, De Guzman is embracing the opportunity to learn from Italian mentor Ettore Guidetti.

De Guzman will be joining the likes of Lycha Ebon, EJ Laure, Krich Macaslang, May Luna, Chiara Permentilla and Lucille Almonte.

Undeniable firepower

The Blue Eagles haven’t gotten the results they wanted yet under Veloso and De Guzman, and former teammate AC Miner who she now gets to play with from the opposite side of the net after her Ateneo teammate was drafted by ZUS Coffee immediately .

“We were really expecting that we won’t be playing for the same team anymore,” De Guzman said. “But we’re happy that we were able to reach our dreams and this is another challenge for us.”

But it was undeniable that the former Ateneo skipper has the firepower to be able to help turn things around for Nxled which has been on a decline four conferences in since it joined the league back in 2023.

And that exactly is what Guidetti will be hoping to change as he drafted fourth overall the 23-year-old outside hitter which De Guzman is excited to carry out.

“[During the tryout] I saw that the team is very promising and they are very eager to learn and improve,” she said. “I am very happy that coach Ettore trusted that I can support and help his team.”