Marck Espejo selected to participate in V. League All-Star festivities

Marck Espejo continues to prove that he's one of the Philippines' brightest volleyball stars, whether it be in the local scene or international.

Espejo, who's currently suiting up as import for FC Tokyo, has been selected to join the prestigious Japan V. League All-Star event where he will be playing alogside 27 other volleyball players.

The former Ateneo standout will be joined by Japanese teammate and middle blocker Hideyuki Kuriyama, who was also part of the players seeing action through V. League recommendation. Some other participants made it in through fan voting.

Masahiro Yanagida (Suntory), Kento Miyaura (JTEKT), Kota Yamada (Oita Miyoshi), Takahiro Tozaki (VC Nagano), Kenta Takanashi (WD Nagoya), Kunihiro Shimizu (Panasonic), Haruki Ono (Suntory), Taishi Onodera (JT Hiroshima), Taichi Fukuyama (JTEKT), Ryota Denda (WD Nagoya), Masaki Oya (Suntory), Motoki Eiro (WD Nagoya), Tomohiro Ogawa (WD Nagoya), and Tomohiro Yamamoto (Sakai) are also selected through fan votes.

Meanwhile, joining Espejo and Kuriyama in the V. League recommendation are Kenya Fujinaka (Suntory), Kenyu Nakamoto (Panasonic), Takaiko Imamura (Panasonic), Chien Chen Chen (JT Hirsoshima), Vernon Evans (Sakai), Akihiro Yamauchi (Panasonic), Lee Haku (Toray), Ryusuke Nakamura (VC Nagano), Naonobu Fujii (Toray), Yudai Kawahigashi (VC Nagano), Masato Kubota (Oita Miyoshi), and Ryuta Homma (JTEKT).

The men's all star game is tipped to unfurl on Christmas Day at 1 p.m. (Manila time) followed by the Women's Fan Festa on December 26. Both events will take place at the Tokorozawa Citizen's Gymnasium.

—Bea Micaller/JMB, GMA News